Losing Their Way

What else can you say when you have the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, saying that Islamic law should be incorporated into British law? Let's revisit what the Archbishop actually said. According to the New York Times:

The archbishop of Canterbury called Thursday for Britain to adopt aspects of Islamic Shariah law alongside the existing legal system. His speech set off a storm of opposition among politicians, lawyers and others, including some Muslims.

The archbishop, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the world’s Anglicans, said in his speech and a BBC radio interview that the introduction of Shariah in family law was “unavoidable.” But he said such “constructive accommodation” should not deprive Muslims of their right to take their cases to the existing court system.

The archbishop compared allowing Muslims to take carefully defined issues to their own religious courts to the established practice among Orthodox Jews here of referring religious disputes to rabbinical courts.

That should be a clarion call to any Christian that the Archbishop is unsuited to be leader of the Church of England. Does he not understand or realize that he's meant to be the religious and spiritual leader of the Church and that his responsibilities include defending the Church's interests against Sharia, which is antithetical to all that the Church stands for?

Let's consider that Sharia demands absolute obedience and fealty - that its adherents condone misogyny, slavery, and other abhorrent practices by pointing to Sharia and Islamic law.

Yet, there are other bishops coming to his defense, which suggests that they too are incapable of understanding their duties and responsibilities to their parishioners.

"He has a responsibility as leader of the established church in making sure the spiritual life of this nation is as healthy as possible. I believe he was doing that yesterday.

"I believe he was standing up for the different faith communities and the ways in which they are treated and was raising questions for people to debate in our society about the way in which Islam is treated alongside Judaism, Christianity and other faiths."

Williams yesterday claimed the adoption of elements of Islamic sharia law in the UK "seems unavoidable". He said there was a place for finding a "constructive accommodation" in areas such as marriage that could allow Muslim women to avoid western divorce proceedings.

Sharia is wholly incompatible with British law, let alone Christian doctrine. It is a failing of multiculturalism that it is accommodating of a religious doctrine that tolerates no other.

Sharia adherents seek to impose Islamic law doctrine in place of British law. Further, Sharia is incompatible with British law because of its treatment of women, minorities, and other religious groups. Those are issues on which the Church is supposed to be defending the rights of women, minorities and its own, yet the Archbishop is more than accommodating.

All this has gotten some in the Church of England to demand he step down.

In an astonishing attack, one senior Church of England clergyman demanded Dr Rowan Williams step down immediately and branded him “gullible”.

The figure, identified only as a long-standing member of the Church’s governing body the General Synod, told The Times that many people had now lost confidence in the Archbishop.

“I am just so shocked, and cannot believe a man of his intelligence could be so gullible,” he said.

Reaction suggests that Islamists may have to wait a wee bit longer before they get their wish.

Oh, and Williams says that he's shocked by the hostile reaction to his statement? What a surprise there. I guess he doesn't really have his ear to the ground to know what people are thinking.