Thread: Adoption of Islamic Sharia law in Britain is 'unavoidable',

This is what happens when a country is invaded by another and does not assimmilate!

Adoption of Islamic Sharia law in Britain is 'unavoidable', says Archbishop of Canterbury
Last updated at 18:22pm on 07.02.08
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Controversial: Dr Rowan Williams believes the introduction of Sharia law to Britain will help maintain social cohesion
The Archbishop of Canterbury has today said that the adoption of Islamic Sharia law in the UK is "unavoidable" and that it would help maintain social cohesion.

Rowan Williams told BBC Radio 4's World At One that the UK has to "face up to the fact" that some of its citizens do not relate to the British legal system.

He says that Muslims could choose to have marital disputes or financial matters dealt with in a Sharia court. He added Muslims should not have to choose between "the stark alternatives of cultural loyalty or state loyalty".

Dr Williams said there was a place for finding a "constructive accommodation" in areas such as marriage - allowing Muslim women to avoid Western divorce proceedings.

Other religions enjoyed such tolerance of their own laws, he pointed out, but stressed that it could never be allowed to take precedence over an individual's rights as a citizen.

He said it would also require a change in perception of what Sharia involved beyond the "inhumanity" of extreme punishments and attitudes to women seen in some Islamic states.

Dr Williams said: "It seems unavoidable and, as a matter of fact, certain conditions of Sharia are already recognised in our society and under our law, so it is not as if we are bringing in an alien and rival system.

"We already have in this country a number of situations in which the internal law of religious communities is recognised by the law of the land as justifying conscientious objections in certain circumstances."

He added: "There is a place for finding what would be a constructive accommodation with some aspects of Muslim law as we already do with aspects of other kinds of religious law.

"It would be quite wrong to say that we could ever license a system of law for some community which gave people no right of appeal, no way of exercising the rights that are guaranteed to them as citizens in general.

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Sharia law in Britain would provide Muslims with an alternative to our divorce courts


"But there are ways of looking at marital disputes, for example, which provide an alternative to the divorce courts as we understand them.

"In some cultural and religious settings, they would seem more appropriate."

But his views were condemned today by senior Tory MP Peter Luff, who said: "This is a very dangerous route which we should not go down. You can't be a little bit pregnant. You can't have a little bit of sharia law.

"We should not start introducing new different legal systems alongside ours."

But the Archbishop defended his position saying people people needed to look at Islamic law "with a clear eye."

"They should not imagine, either, that we know exactly what we mean by Sharia and just associate it with ... Saudi Arabia, or whatever," he continued.

"Nobody in their right mind would want to see in this country the kind of inhumanity that has sometimes been associated with the practice of the law in some Islamic states: the extreme punishments, the attitudes to women."

There were questions about how it interacted with human rights, he said.

"But I do not think we should instantly spring to the conclusion that the whole of that world of jurisprudence and practice is somehow monstrously incompatible with human rights just because it doesn't immediately fit with how we understand it."

Dr Williams said Orthodox Jewish courts already operated in the UK, and anti-abortion views of Catholics and other Christians were "accommodated within the law".

"The whole idea that there are perfectly proper ways the law of the land pays respect to custom and community, that's already there."

He said the issue of whether Catholic adoption agencies would be forced under equality laws to accept gay parents showed there was confusion on the matter.

"That principle that there is only one law for everybody is an important pillar of our social identity as a Western democracy.

"But I think it is a misunderstanding to suppose that means people don't have other affiliations, other loyalties which shape and dictate how they behave in society and that the law needs to take some account of that."

He said he accepted people might be surprised by his call but urged them to consider the wider question.

"What we don't want is a stand-off where the law squares up to people's religious consciences, on something like abortion or indeed by forcing a vote on some aspects of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill in the Commons ... we don't either want a situation where, because there's no legal way of monitoring what communities do, making them part of the public process, people do what they like in private in such a way that that becomes another way of intensifying oppression within a community."

Sharia law was originally more enlightened in its attitude to women than other legal systems, he pointed out, but did now have to be brought up to date.

"But you have to translate that into a setting where that whole area of the rights and liberties of women has moved on.

"The principle and the vision which animates the whole Islamic legal provision needs broadening because of that."

Responding to comments by one of his senior bishops that Islamic extremism was creating communities with "no-go areas" for non-Muslims, he said it was "not at all the case that we have absolute social exclusion.

"But we do have a lot of social suspicion, a lot of distance and we just have to go on working at how that shared citizenship comes through."

The Bishop of Rochester, The Rt Rev Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, said last month that non-Muslims faced a hostile reception in places dominated by the ideology of Islamic radicals.

Dr Williams said the use of the phrase "no-go areas" had sparked controversy because it reminded people of Northern Ireland.

"I don't think that was at all what was intended; I think it was meant to point to the silo problem, the sense of communities not communicating with each other.

"Many Muslims would say that they feel bits of British society are no-go areas for them."

Mohammed Shafiq, director of the Ramadhan Foundation, welcomed the comments.

"These comments further underline the attempts by both our great faiths to build respect and tolerance.

"Sharia law for civil matters is something which has been introduced in some Western countries with much success; I believe that Muslims would take huge comfort from the Government allowing civil matters being resolved according to their faith.

"We are however disappointed that the Archbishop of Canterbury was silent when Mr Nazir-Ali was promoting intolerance and lying about no-go areas for Christians in the UK by Muslim extremists.

"Unless he speaks out against this intolerance, Muslims will take his silence as authorisation and support for such comments.

"The Ramadhan Foundation will continue to work with the Church of England to build understanding and respect for our two communities."

Dr Williams's comments are likely to fuel the debate over multiculturalism in the UK.

But he insists that Sharia law needs to be better understood.

At the moment, he says "sensational reporting of opinion polls" clouds the issue.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23436203-details/Adoption+of+Islamic+Sharia+law+in+Britain+is+'unav oidable'%2C+says+Archbishop+of+Canterbury/article.do

Church and State should remain separated... Period! Even though the Anglican Church was founded in England, it is not officially a State Religion. Parliament has striven to maintain a separation of church and state within England for the last two centuries and under no circumstances should any religion establish laws in a country alongside of those laws created by Parliament. The Archbishop of Canterbury is out of his mind to suggest Sharia law co-existing with Parliamentary Law. He should be removed from his office for endangering the survival of his own theology! Does he think that Islam wants Christianity to survive if it gained a foothold in England?

This is the trouble with Socialism, which has been establishing itself in Europe and is allowing groups from foreign soil to infiltrate European countries and those factions then attempt to change the laws of those countries. (Note: the difference between Socialism and Communism in regard to religion is the fact that Socialism allows for religious practice, while Communism does not.)

The Netherlands has been having a tremendous problem because the Socialist powers in that country have allowed Muslims to come in and have their way. France, of all countries, has seen through this situation and recently elected a conservative President; dumping the former Socialist leadership. What can we learn from this? Well, first of all, don't think that it cannot happen here. We have had Socialist and Communist groups marching right alongside the Illegal Aliens during the May Day marches of last year, and yes... they want to effect change in the United States. And that change that they wish has nothing to do with the freedoms of U.S. Citizens.

In the United States, the separation of Church and State has been a part of our Constitutional Law since our nation's founding and it was written into the Constitution because of the persecutions that our colonial founders endured in England when religious laws held sway over national law. If we were to allow the Socialist factions to allow people of other countries to come here without assimilating into our culture, inclusive of attempting to establish Sharia law alongside of our Constitutional Law, we would be following the same path of internal destruction that Europe is enduring now.

I read that article with the most intense feeling of dread. I literally have bile rising up in my throat.

Sharia law not only oppresses women, but it advocates for the torture, humiliation, and degradation of women.

I feel very very sorry for British citizens, and I wonder if the U.S. will not find itself inundated with refugess from Britain seeking political asylum.

They reap what they sow...if Britains are not willing to stand up for their nation they are going to get what they deserve.....same with Americans!

I think the whole thing is depressing. But, there could be chance here to bring more humanity to Sharia Law. I really don't think Britians would allow stoning in the streets! If it comes to that, the muslims who adhere to these laws may finally get thrown out!

If this does not scare the hell out of you then you are living in fantasy land!

This is a perfect example of a certain group of people that absolutely refuse to assimilate and expect the new country to conform to their beliefs and pratices. It's also about a government that refuses to protect it's citizens by giving in to the demands of the immigrants.

Thank god the illegal invaders do not pratice islam or the US would be in the same boat.