Holier than thou!

 

 

It was a classic case of an Islamophobic media jumping the gun and baying for blood. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury—religious head of the Anglican Church—has been a fixture in the headlines in Britain since his comments on a BBC radio program that assimilation of parts of Sharia was “unavoidable.” Later, in a lecture to the Royal Courts of Justice, he stated a “constructive relationship between Islamic law and the statutory law of the United Kingdom” could be considered. That triggered growing calls for his resignation from members of the General Synod of the Church of England, Tories and others from the religious right. Talking to TSI from Liverpool, Alison Ruoff, a Synod member for London, reacted: “He has done the Anglican Communion no favours. He should go.”

Meanwhile, the Archbishop has defended his remarks and asserted that he “did not call for the introduction (of the Sharia) as some kind of parallel jurisdiction to the civil law”. Reacting on his statement, William R. Roff, an Islamic Studies expert and Honorary Fellow at University of Edinburgh, told TSI: “I suggest that one model of the kind of accommodation he is seeking--in addition for example to that of the Jewish Beth Din council, which functions, as a form of religious court for Jews in Britain -- is that of “Anglo Muhammadan” law. The tide of – let’s be blunt about it—racist and Islamophobic abuse that has greeted him is alarming.”

There are nearly 1.8 million Muslims in Britain, representing 2.7 per cent of the total populace. Sharia courts do exist, but they have no authorised status and their verdicts are not obligatory. The Archbishop is correct to argue that popular perceptions of what Sharia means are rather skewed. Utter the word and countless people in West start thinking of severe punishments, the execution of apostates and the subjugation of women. He is reasonable in pointing out that to view the sort of Sharia practised by the Saudi Arabia and the Taliban as the lone true adaptation of Islamic jurisprudence is a denigration on all forbearing Muslims.

Echoing his sentiment Peter Hinchcliffe, former diplomat and Honorary Fellow at the University of Edinburgh , told TSI: “He is right. It is inevitable that some aspects of Sharia jurisprudence will be recognised in the UK. It already is with regard to Islamic banking and it seems likely that Muslim weddings will also be recognised in the way that Christian and Jewish weddings are.”

Post-9/11, amid the xenophobia that gripped the West, a sincere approach to healing the ties between Islam and the west is necessary. The Archbishop’s remark is an endeavour towards that.