What a Sharia Farce

What a horrible response to the well meaning but politically naïve Archbishop, much like the storms that surround the Pope periodically. Sometimes their words get taken totally out of context, its sad that in the modern world church leaders will need media training. Is it not possible to discuss the possibility of learning something useful from a traditional Muslim system of law and custom without a frenzied attack on all things Muslim? Most of the attacks are defending something he wasn't attacking, so are missing the point.

Its fair to say that no one wants different laws for different groups of people, we pride ourselves on all being equal under the law. However MPs are happy to make exceptions of themselves on surveillance, expenses, pension provision and independent pay awards. Anyway those who want it can already voluntarily use Sharia or another system to help them in some cases, so is the Bish so wrong?

Its almost as bad in local Reading politics as when Tory Cllr Willis suggests F. W. de Klerk may have had something to do with dismantling apartheid (he did after all share a Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela for his efforts). See http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1993/index.html According to several Labour Cllrs Mandela is the only one who can be honoured, which sounds a bit Stalinist to me; airbrushing everyone else out of history. I wonder who they could be following in this approach, comrade Brown?

Its Labour Ministers who regularly stoke the fires of anti Muslim feeling when they talk up fear of terrorism, conveniently forgetting the actions of the USA and the UK in Iraq in killing hundreds of thousands of innocents that caused the bad feeling in the first place.

The Archbishop of Cantebury Rowan Williams may loose his job over this, while the real criminals go on in peace, its Blair and Bush that should be on trial. The much misquoted Archbishop has been misunderstood and turned on by much of the media who seem to enjoy blaming Islam and foriegners for problems that are caused by our western leaders.



For the transcript of the interview see
www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/wato/archbishoptranscript.shtml

For how bloggers and the media are treating this see:
http://iaindale.blogspot.com/2008/02/are-we-being-islamophobic.html
http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/02/09/the-archbishop-keeps-digging-on-his-own/
http://janestheones.blogspot.com/2008/02/sack-archbishop.html
http://atoryblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/archbishop-of-canterbury-recommends.html
http://politicalopinions.co.uk/page/search/tag/concept
http://tonysharp.blogspot.com/2008/02/archbishop-of-canterbury-loses-his.html
Proving the Liberal Democrates are not Liberal or tolerant see
http://www.theliberati.net/quaequamblog/2008/02/08/does-rowan-williams-have-any-more-idea-of-what-hes-going-on-about-than-i-do/
http://paulwalter.blogspot.com/2008/02/what-burkha-sun-on-archbishop-of.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7233335.stm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/02/08/dl0801.xml
http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/1580 For the Archbishops website