Dr. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, sparked controversy last month when he said that Sharia (Islamic) law in the United Kingdom “seems unavoidable.” As reported by the Guardian, “Williams, the most senior figure in the Church of England, said that giving Islamic law official status in the UK would help to achieve social cohesion because some Muslims did not relate to the British legal system.” The British paper quoted Williams as saying, “If what we want socially is a pattern of relations in which a plurality of diverse and overlapping affiliations work for a common good, and in which groups of serious and profound conviction are not systematically faced with the stark alternatives of cultural loyalty or state loyalty, it seems unavoidable.”
Williams made those remarks in a lecture to the Royal Courts of Justice in London. Prior to giving that speech, he told the BBC that viewing law as if “there’s one law for everybody and that’s all there is to be said, and anything else that commands your loyalty or allegiance is completely irrelevant in the processes of the courts — I think that’s a bit of a danger.”
In actuality, the Islamic influence in the United Kingdom increasing to the extent that the leader of the Church of England would argue for adopting some parts of Islamic law points to “a bit of a danger.”
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