Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams really has stirred up a hornet’s nest over his Sharia Law comments, hasn’t he. He must have known what was going to happen if he waded into this one – such subjects are now impossible to discuss in a rational, intellectual way given the hysterical knee-jerk responses that British media and (guided by said media?) politicians are so prone to.
I must admit I have mixed feelings about this one – although I consider myself more educated about (and open towards) Islam than the average British person, I don’t know whether picking and choosing elements of Sharia in the way the Archbishop is suggesting is something it would even be theoretically possible to do, even if you wanted to.
As far as I understand it, most religions expect adherants to accept all their rules and teachings, even those that don’t sit easily with them. That has always been my problem with organised religion – I was brought up a Catholic but have never accepted the Church’s teachings on issues like homosexuality and divorce. Therefore I would never consider myself – or want to call myself – a Catholic, even if I practised in other ways (which I don’t).
Anyway that’s a total irrelevance. I’m not quite sure what to think about the Archbishop’s suggestions…I can see both sides of the argument and don’t feel qualified to have a real opinion either way. There’s some interesting debate on the subject here.
It’s a moot point anyway because it’s never going to happen – how could it in a country where policy is guided by a right-wing press agenda that has polarised debate to this extent.
What I do think is a shame is that Rowan Williams is being torn apart for even voicing the thought in the first place. There’s so little space for intelligent debate on anything that relates to Islam or Muslims or in fact anything controversial in this country, and anyone who tries is demonised by the self-appointed thought police.
My god, I’m starting to sound like the Daily Mail. Argghhhhhh sorry. Now there’s a scary thought.

postscript: The Bishop of Hulme said exactly what I think about all this when I spoke to him yesterday. But the comments beneath the MEN story once again prove that people won’t even take on board the context of the Archbishop’s talk. There’s a dangerous level of Islamaphobia in this country, even among those who should know better.

pps: The full text of the Archbishop’s lecture can be found here