Muslim activists concered at Archbishop’s Sharia talk: CEN 3.28.08 p 6. March 28, 2008
Posted by geoconger in Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England Newspaper, Islam, Multiculturalism.trackback
The Archbishop of Canterbury’s statement that some aspects of Sharia law in Britain “seems unavoidable” has served to undermine democratic reforms in the Arab world, a Libyan activist has claimed.
Writing in the Arabic language journal Elaph on Feb 26, Muhammad ‘Abd Al-Muttalib Al-Houni wrote Dr. Williams’ words had encouraged Islamist fundamentalists and had grave repercussions for human rights in the Muslim world.
While the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups have applauded Dr. Williams’ February remarks to the BBC and his lecture at the Temple Church on aspects of Sharia and British law, the response from moderate and secular Muslims has been poor.
Were Britain to incorporate “Islamic Sharia laws regarding personal status” into its civil code, a dual court system would have to be established or “else a large number of European judges would have to be sent to the Taliban to learn Sharia thoroughly enough to implement its laws.”
Britain would also have to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights and modify its own tradition of civil liberties so as to permit polygamy, allow “Muslim citizens to beat their wives to discipline them,” permit men to divorce their wives “without requiring any court proceedings,” outlaw adoption, deprive divorced women of the custody of their children if they remarried, give daughters half the share of sons in inheritance proceedings while allowing widows only an eighth share of the estate, and forbid Muslim women from marrying non-Muslim men.
Acceding to the demands of Sharia law, Al-Houni wrote, would destroy the concept of citizenship and “spell the end” of human rights legislation in Britain. Dr. Williams’ argument “sends the wrong message to the Islamic world. The gist of this message is that there is no contradiction between Islamic Sharia and Western civilization if [Sharia] applies [only] for Muslim citizens.”
The “reverberations” from Dr. Williams’ remarks would have a “grave” impact on the Islamic world, Al-Houri said according to a translation provided by the MEMRI news service.
“The Islamic world has been suffering from fundamentalist attacks on what is left of secular society in their countries. These fundamentalists want to implement a Sharia law that contravenes human rights, taking as their model and inspiration the seventh-century state [established by] the Prophet Mohammad in Medina.”
“At present, these [fundamentalists] are picking fights with the secularists in Islamic countries, and their attitude is: ‘How can you oppose Sharia law in your own countries when we see that the Anglican Church is seeking its implementation in Europe?’,” Al-Houri wrote.
Dr. Williams’ “message is wrong, and it is detrimental to all pleas for modernism and secularism in the Islamic world,” Al-Houni said.
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