Illustrious and notable members of TheBritish Establishment were in full bloom
among the more than 1,000 people at The
Great Hall of The Royal Courts of Law to hear
in person the Archbishop of Canterbury's
extraordinary and controversial lecture on
"Islam In English Law." I was there, too.
I also got to meet him personally and to
take a series of photographs of him up close
at the end of his historic lecture, which was
chaired by Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers,
who is the current Lord Chief Justice of
All England and Wales.
;;
At the reserved front row, I saw Lord Justice
Anthony and Lady Stella May, Sir Christopher
Clarke, Lord Harry Woolf, His Excellency
Mohammed Belmahi, Morocco's Envoy to
the Court of St. James; Halldora Blair, wife
of Anthony Blair's brother Michael Blair, Q.C.,
Marie Papworth of the Lambeth Palace Press
Office, and Rev'd Jonathan Goodall, the
Archbishop's personal Chaplain, among many
others notables like the Anglican Suffragan
Bishop of Kingston, Rt. Rev'd Richard Cheetham,
who I photographed with his consent; Members
of Parliament, the Dipomatic Corps, Islamic
representatives, High Court Judges and
Barristers from the Inner and Middle Temples.
I saw alot of familiar faces at the lecture, but
to which I couldn't always put a name to them
myself while my evening friend Elizabeth
Middleton did so for me rather quickly. She
seems to know everybody in Who's Who.
;;
I sat on the front row of the unreserved seats at
about six yards or so from the archbishop himself.
Next to me was John Madeley, Lecturer in Govern-
ment at the London School of Economics (LSE) and
who speaks at least four languages. Next but one to
me, was Egyptologist Don Stewart of Wellington,
New Zealand, although he's of British birth.
;;
So what then was the substance of Archbishop
Rowan Williams' extraordinary and controversial
lecture on "Islam In English Law" at The Great
Hall? Of course, once the words "Islam" or
"Muslim" and/or "Islamic" are used, it seems to
create an immediate fearful reaction or curious
response among the British public and media.
We have in England almost 1.8 million Muslims
and so that too brings about various emotions
and mental images among many non-Muslims.
Why do you think that over 1,000 people went
to great pains to obtain the most sought after
tickets to such a lecture? And especially a lecture
coming from the global Christian leader of the
world's 77 million member Anglican Communion
to which Dr. Williams so clearly represents ...
;;
The catch word was "ISLAM" and that's what got
everybody's attention at what the archbishop
planned to say on that top topic at The Great Hall.
Unlike Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop Williams
did not create a Muslim furore by making
negative comments that would only enrage
the majority of the Islamic faithful. Good for
His Grace and good for us. But instead, the
shrill British secular media and some fellow
Christians have now created a huge hullabaloo
about what the archbishop had to say regarding
Sharia Law in British society. I suspect most of
those now screaming at the top of their heads
neither attended the lecture nor heard it from be-
ginning to end, like I did. And those same people
calling for His Grace to now "resign" from his
Canterburian archbishopic are either stupid or rash
people or just plain ignoramuses in my personal
opinion.
;;
So again, what what did Archbishop Rowan
Douglas Williams actually say at his superb
lecture? Here is a brief synopsis in Dr.
Williams' own words:
"It seems unaviodable and, as a matter of
fact, certain conditions of sharia are already
recognised in our society and under our law,
so it is not as if we are beginning in an alien
and rival system. "We already have in this
country a number of situations in which in-
ternal law of religious communities is recogn-
ised by the law of the land as justifying
conscientious objections in certain circum-
stances.
"There are ways of looking at marital disputes,
for example, which provide an alternative to
the divorce courts as we understand them."
;;
I fail to see anywhere in the archbishop's
speech of one and half hours at where he called
for Sharia Law to replace and be codified over
existing British Law or to call for such Islamic
Laws to be the future English law of the land.
As for Sharia being already in existence, he is
right on the ball. My own British bank provides
Sharia banking accounts to anybody wishing to
have Islamic complied accounts. If the British
don't want to have to deal with such issues
raised by Dr. Williams, then the government
should never have granted immigration status
to hundreds of thousands of Muslims now living
and working legally in Britain. The only other
answer would be to hold mass expulsions of
all Muslims in the UK much like the Spanish
did centuries ago during the Moorish era.
;;
I think the 104th Archbishop of
Canterbury has been particularly brave to
even enter into any discussion about Sharia
Law for it seems everytime a non-Muslim
leader talks about Islam in any shape or form
there is always some kind of backlash either by
the Muslims themselves or now by Christians
and secularists. What this will do is to bar any
mention of Islam at future public forums and/or
in ecumenical discussions between Christians
and the Islamic faithful. It seems now almost
dangerous to raise the spectre of Islam and
Christianity that will only further islolate two
of world's major religions between them
in the future.
;;
Let me leave you with the brief news
highlight on His Grace's lecture as reported
by Ecumenical News International (ENI)
from Geneva:
:: Anglican leader's Sharia
comments stir furious British response ::
"A suggestion by the Archbishop of Canterbury,
Rowan Williams, that certain aspects of Islamic
Sharia law be incorporated into the British legal
system has triggered political fury and a heated
debate on religious tolerance.
The archbishop, who is the leader of the worldwide
Anglican Communion, made his comments first on
the BBC radio programme The World at One on 7
January and then expanded on them later in the
day during a lecture at the Temple Festival Series
in London. His suggestion was that a small portion
of Sharia, which itself is a portion of Islamic law
based on text in the Qu'ran but which is not codified,
could be incorporated into British law."
Truly, Monty. +The 3rd Day of Lent, 2oo8
:: Above Photostock Caption ::
The Most Rev'd and Rt. Hon Rowan Douglas
Williams, 104th Archbishop of Canterbury.
UPDATE:
Orthodox prelate says 'liberal Christianity'
threat to church unity. Geneva (ENI).
A senior Russian Orthodox Church bishop
has criticised suggestions by the Archbishop of
Canterbury Rowan Williams that some aspects
of Islamic law should be recognised in the British
legal system, as representing a "politically correct"
Christianity. "It is not our task to defend Sharia
law, or to commend alternative lifestyles or to
promote secular values. Our holy mission is to
preach what Christ preached," said Bishop
Hilarion of Vienna and Austria, the represent-
ative of the Russian Orthodox Church to the
European institutions.
The Ecumenical News International.
St. Valentine, 2oo8.
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