Posted on 02/09/2008 1:42:00 PM PST by knighthawk
Senior religious leaders attack multiculturalism and sharia law today, warning that they are "disastrous", socially divisive and are destroying Britain's culture and values.
Lord Carey and Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor rebut the call of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, for Islamic law to be recognised in Britain.
Lord Carey, the former archbishop of Canterbury, said: "His acceptance of some Muslim laws within British law would be disastrous for the nation. He has overstated the case for accommodating Islamic legal codes.
"His conclusion that Britain will eventually have to concede some place in law for aspects of sharia is a view I cannot share.
"There can be no exceptions to the laws of our land which have been so painfully honed by the struggle for democracy and human rights."
In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, said that the Government's promotion of multiculturalism had destroyed the unity that used to hold society together. Immigrants must "obey the laws of this country".
Writing in this newspaper, Lord Carey condemns multiculturalism as "disastrous", blames it for creating Islamic ghettos and says that Dr Williams's support for sharia law will "inevitably lead to further demands from the Muslim community".
He suggests that such a move could embolden some Muslims to try to turn Britain into a country ruled by Islamic law which, he says, contradicts principles of human rights and allows the persecution of Christians.
Their comments will come as a blow to the embattled archbishop, who is experiencing the darkest days of his six years as leader of the Anglican Church, following his claim that the adoption of certain aspects of sharia law is "unavoidable".
It also marks a deepening of the rift between Dr Williams and leading church figures over his support for Islamic law. The Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, said that it would be "simply impossible" to have two different legal systems.
Dr Williams sought to defend his comments yesterday, but is fighting to survive calls from politicians and members of his church demanding his resignation. The vast majority of the Church's ruling body believe he was wrong, a Sunday Telegraph poll shows. The survey of the General Synod found that only three per cent agreed that aspects of Islamic law should be adopted. Four per cent said he should resign, but two thirds rejected claims that he had lost credibility. A number of bishops have spoken out against the attacks on the archbishop, but a far greater number, including the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, have chosen to distance themselves from the issue.
Dr Williams argued that Muslims should not have to choose between "the stark alternatives of cultural loyalty or state loyalty". However, Lord Carey says the potential damage of Dr Williams's idea of incorporating sharia courts into civil law "does not bear thinking about". He says that it would be dangerous and would encourage some Muslims to try to turn Britain into an Islamic state.
The former archbishop says that accommodating sharia law would lead to further demands. "This is absolutely inevitable, since questions to do with the separation of ‘church and state' are largely new to Islam. Sharia law trumps civil law every time."
He adds: "Many Muslim interpreters of sharia believe that it supersedes secular law and assume that its ‘God-given' status would lead to the point of eventually replacing civil law."
According to Lord Carey, sharia law disadvantages women and minorities, contradicts principles of human rights and has led to the persecution of Christians in countries such as Nigeria, where churches have been burned down. Dr Williams's endorsement of "a legal marketplace in which people opt in and out based on religious affiliation opens the door to a parallel system of justice", he writes. "The question which must be asked is whether the separate systems promote harmony or continue the creation of ghettos for Muslim communities — the result of disastrous policies of multiculturalism."
The archbishop had argued that the introduction of parts of Islamic law would help improve social cohesion, but Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor joined Lord Carey in attacking this idea and urged Muslims to do more to integrate.
"The extent to which multiculturalism has been encouraged recently has meant a lessening of the kind of unity that a country needs," he told this newspaper. "There are common values which are part of the heritage of this country which should be embraced by everybody.
"I don't believe in a multi-cultural society. When people come into this country they have to obey the laws of the land." He says that sharia law clashes with British culture and stresses that the Government must act to stop the acceptance of foreign practices. Last week, this newspaper revealed that men with multiple wives had been given the go-ahead by ministers to claim extra welfare benefits.
"The laws of this country don't allow forced marriages or polygamy," Lord Carey writes. "A government and a country has a right to make sure those laws are kept."
Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, the shadow minister for community cohesion, said that setting up rival systems of law would alienate sections of society and may lead to legal apartheid.
Ping
The UK has gone wacky since they banned handguns.
Western Europe, including Britian is finished. They have lost their religions to moral relativism. If all cultures are equal who is to say which is better? In fact, by that defintion, they are all the same and must be recognized.
We’ll be there in fifteen to twenty years with Hillary’s judges leading the way.
That's the object except that morons like the AB don't realize which side of the fence they'll be on.
Wow. I don’t know if Wynne-Jones is making look more widespread than they actually are, but if Rowan Williams is forced to resign that would be a HUGE sign that maybe things in England aren’t as bad as we think.
It would also be a shot across the bows of that jerk Gordon Brown and his idiot ministers.
Also, I doubt whether the reaction would be so strong if Williams hadn’t made such a jerk of himself over other issues, such as homosexuality in the Church of England.
If he resigns over this, that would be amazing! I would give a lot to see it happen.
When does the Archbishop decide on public policy?
The Magna Carta is about to be shoved down the Memory Hole.
There’s no England any more
http://youtube.com/watch?v=t00PAko1KBU
What's really amazing to me is that all this "tolerance," all this "acceptance," all this "openess," does not buy them one single particle of credit from anyone. Those on the loony left, both inside Britain and outside it, still hate it with a vengence and want to see it brought low. Those not on the left are dismayed or, in some cases, amused.
Those who benefit directly from the Britains abdication of it's role as protector of western civilization, the muslims and others of their ilk, laugh at the British behind their backs and prepare the next phase of their conquest. They stock ammunition, high explosives, and other things more terrible, in their mosques and community centers.
How can they even entertain the thought of another form of law in thier own country regardless of the ethnicities within. Insanity at an alarming level! This Muslim problem is getting on my nerves! Assimilate or get the hell out.
When the "conservative" opposition has such a role, the game is over already.
Some sanity, at last.
Multiculturalism is national suicide, and political correctness is the cyanide capsule.
Accepting shari’a MAY lead to apartheid?
The essence of Islam is apartheid. Either you follow Islam or you are an infidel, and therefore given two choices: convert or die. Sounds like “apartness” to me. Shari’a just establishes the legal framework for Islamic apartheid.
*** the previous comment banned under Canadian law ***
How about gang rapes and honor killings of Muslim daughters? Should we just file that under other cultures' little quirks?
“The UK has gone wacky since they banned handguns”
Ding! Ding! Ding! Folks, we have a winner!
Instead of handguns, the Brits now have Muslims, surveillance cameras, and home invasions in abundance!
The British should ask themselves why this is not even up for discussion here in the US?
This has always been the problem with multiculturalism. It fails to recognize that some cultures demand the destruction of other cultures. Sharia law is fundamentally incompatible with a free society.
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