I feel sorry for the Archbishop of Canterbury. ++Williams always puts a lot of thought into what he says and his words are well chosen and nuanced...Sadly that doesn't make for good sound bites.
So it’s not surprising that his latest comments about Sharia law are causing controversy.
If you actually looked at what he said, he was saying that it should be introduced in only certain areas- notably family law and some financial cases.
The funny thing is this... despite all the claims that the courts should not be based on religion, or that the laws shouldn't be varied, etc, etc, what the commentators are forgetting is that in the UK we already have faith based courts which routinely rule on these matters and which are binding in English law. They are called the Beth Din and they serve the UK's orthodox Jewish communities.
If it works for one (smaller) religious community in this country, why not with Sharia? And if the politicians, community leaders and journalists really have a problem with the principle of religious based jurisprudence, surely it’s hypocritical for them not to call for its abolition- or are they just Islamophobic (or worse)?
2 comments:
Hi Andrew. Glad to read your comment - insightful as usual. Sorry i haven't been in touch for so long - preoccupied with my own affairs - and sorry to hear of your health problems - you've had quite a time of it!
You are as always, in my prayers.
Judith
great post andrew.
it's a good insight i hadn't heard before durring the coverage of this story.
thanks!
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