Sharia law in UK is 'unavoidable'

Williams 'shocked' at Sharia row

Archbishop defends Sharia remarks


I'm a user of Firefox and my favourite part of this program is the "Latest Headlines" tab. I keep myself in touch with what's going on around the world by looking at the headlines shown, as well as my daily dose of Today newspaper. And the above 3 headlines made this past few days amused me.

I find it pleasant to see people of other faiths thinking. Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Caterbury certainly is one of them. By thinking, i mean remaining faithful to your faith but still keeping an open mind about other faiths. This instead of being stubborn and sticking blindly to religion and culture and tradition.

Dr Williams argues that adopting part of Islamic Sharia law would help maintain social cohesion. For example, Muslims could choose to have marital disputes or financial matters dealt with in a Sharia court. He says Muslims should not have to choose between "the stark alternatives of cultural loyalty or state loyalty".

And among the remarks he got are: "The Church at the moment, and the country, needs a clear lead. The country is itself in a debate about its own identity.", "The moral values that we pursue are ones that we need to know are clearly grounded, and it would be most helpful for the leader of the Church to be able to explain to people how the values we cherish stem from our Christian tradition."

And more painfully, "I think he is totally unfit for the role he undertakes. He's not fit to be Archbishop of Canterbury, he doesn't seem to know what his own business is, and he's not fit to sit in the House of lords. I think he should go."

It's nice to see people being passionate about their religion these days, for most of the times, u only see Muslims being a little too passionate about it. Here we have someone with an open mind trying to bridge the gap and there you have people hurling nasty remarks at him. Are they afraid that their Archbishop have been affected by one too many interfaith dialogues? Afraid that the integration of Sharia law and the UK legal system would mean the subtle infusion of Islam into the vastly Christian/Catholic society? To put it simply, no one would want to see their religious leader concede to the practice of another religion.

If only i could have my way with words so that i could put across my point clearly.

Having seen a rough picture of society there, I truly believe we are the only society where people of different races, languages, religions and even nationalities can live together as one.