Church leader's sharia comments spark row in Britain

[bamalli]

Church leader's sharia comments spark row in Britain
By Katherine Haddon AFP - Friday, February 8

LONDON (AFP) -

The religious head of the Anglican Church sparked an angry row Friday
after saying the adoption of some parts of Islamic sharia law
alongside Britain's legal system "seems unavoidable. "

Leaders across the political spectrum criticised Archbishop of
Canterbury Rowan Williams' call for "constructive accommodation. " He
was also lambasted by the press.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown's official spokesman had already
distanced the premier from the remarks, stressing that "British law
should apply in this country, based on British values."

Culture Secretary Andy Burnham went further, telling BBC television
Williams was "wrong" and his views were a "recipe for chaos, social
chaos." The main opposition Conservatives described the remarks
as "unhelpful."

The issue of Muslim integration has been particularly sensitive since
the July 2005 bombings in London in which four young British Muslims
killed themselves and 52 others on the public transport system.

Britain is home to nearly 1.6 million Muslims, some 2.7 percent of
the total population, according to the 2001 national census.

On Thursday, Williams told BBC radio: "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."

He agreed that if Britain is to achieve social cohesion, people of
religious faith had to be accommodated within the law and to this
end, "it seems unavoidable" that sharia should be applied in some
circumstances.

Giving an example of how sharia could come into play, Williams
said: "There are ways of looking at marital disputes, for example,
which provide an alternative to the divorce courts as we understand
them."

But Williams stressed there could be no place for "a kind of
inhumanity that sometimes appears to be associated with the practice
of the law in some Islamic states -- the extreme punishments, the
attitudes to women."

He also called on people in Britain to look at sharia "with a clearer
eye" and "not just associate it with what we read about Saudi Arabia
or whatever."

If the law did not take more account of minority communities, there
would be "no way of legally monitoring what communities do" and
levels of oppression could intensify as "people do what they like in
private," he added.

There are already some religious courts in operation in Britain --
orthodox Jews can choose to turn to the Beth Din to resolve civil
disputes, including divorces, if both sides agree to accept its
authority.

But the press laid into Williams, who has long advocated stronger
relations with Muslim leaders.

The Sun tabloid ran the headline "What A Burkha," while the
Independent broadsheet said he had made as big a mistake as Pope
Benedict XVI, who in 2006 triggered worldwide protests after quoting
a historic text saying the Prophet Mohammed's teachings were "evil
and inhuman."

Williams' intervention was welcomed by the Ramadhan Foundation, a
body which promotes cooperation between Muslims and non-Muslims.

Chairman Muhammad Umar said: "I believe that Muslims would take huge
comfort from the government allowing civil matters being resolved
according to their faith."