Welshman jailed under sharia law calls on Rowan to resign

Feb 9 2008 by Sarah Miloudi, Western Mail

A WELSHMAN who spent two-and-a-half years imprisoned in a Saudi jail under sharia law, yesterday called on the Archbishop of Canterbury to resign.

Dr Rowan Williams has been under increasing fire from Christian and secular groups and government figures for claiming the adoption of elements of Islamic sharia law in the UK “seems unavoidable”.

But one of Wales’ bishops, Carl Cooper, last night said this “uniform and negative reaction” had been “shameful”.

The Bishop of St Davids said, “It highlights the pitiful lack of understanding that exists within society generally and on the part of our political leaders in particular regarding issues of faith and religion.

“This is one of the inevitable consequences of a culture that goes out of its way to relegate religion to the private sphere of life and inhibits religious people from practising their religion in the public arena.

“Archbishop Rowan is not calling for a dual legal system, nor is he asking for anything that would undermine or transplant British law based on British values. Rather, he is reminding us that most people’s conscience is informed and governed by more than the law of the land. In fact, the law recognises this and allows conscientious objection in a number of areas on the basis of religious conviction.”

James Lee from Penarth, however, added his voice to the criticisms, saying the sharia statement by the former Archbishop of Wales Dr Williams was “irresponsible”.

The 46-year-old said, “It is irresponsible, and if you are irresponsible in your job you should resign. All I have heard today is reaction to the comments and it is stirring up resentment in the common man.”

Mr Lee, who lived in Saudi Arabia for 10 years, condemned sharia law as “barbaric”. He said many of the country’s refugees and former residents now living here would not want Britain to introduce laws banning alcohol and women from driving.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said principles of Islamic law could not be used as “justification” for committing breaches of English law, and that the legal system should continue to be based on British values.

The Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, who has both a Christian and a Muslim family background, said yesterday all the codes of sharia “would be in tension with the English legal tradition on questions like monogamy, provisions for divorce, the rights of women, custody of children, laws of inheritance and of evidence.”

The Bishop of Southwark, Tom Butler, acknowledged the archbishop had strayed into “a minefield” but had raised legitimate questions.

“What has been explosive is that his examples have referred to sharia law, which is an emotive concept in our society. He is saying these sharia councils in some places already exist informally.

“It might be better to formalise them under British law, to make sure they do correspond to British law. But there are real practical difficulties.”

He added, “It will take a great deal more thought and work before I think it is a good idea... The archbishop has a way with language, but this was a very heavy lecture.”

Saleem Kidwai, the Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Wales, said he felt the archbishop’s comments had been taken out of context.

He said if the full interview Dr Williams gave to BBC Radio Four on Thursday was analysed, it was clear he did not say he wanted all aspects of Islamic law to come into force in the UK.

Mr Kidwai said, “People have made a knee-jerk reaction to these comments and made a big deal out of what he has said.

“If you look at the depth of the interview he did not say anything that was wrong.

“The archbishop is an intelligent man who will have thought before he made his statement. He does not want all parts [of sharia law] to be applied,” he added.

He also said despite Muslims having lived in Britain for centuries, introducing sharia law was not something the community had asked for and nor was it demanding this of society.

He said most Muslims were happy living under British rules and that migrants were aware they are living in a different country and chose to abide by its legal system.

What Dr Williams said

“It seems unavoidable 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 bringing in an alien and rival system.

“We already have in this country a number of situations in which the internal law of religious communities is recognised by the law of the land as justifying conscientious objections in certain circumstances.

“There are ways of looking at marital disputes, for example, which provide an alternative to the divorce courts as we understand them.”