The Archbishop of Canterbury says the adoption of Islamic Sharia law in the UK seems “unavoidable”.
Dr Rowan Williams told Radio 4’s World at One that the UK has to “face up to the fact” that some of its citizens do not relate to the British legal system.
Dr Williams argues that adopting some aspects of Sharia law would help maintain social cohesion.
For example, Muslims could choose to have marital disputes or financial matters dealt with in a Sharia court.
He says Muslims should not have to choose between “the stark alternatives of cultural loyalty or state loyalty”.
I don’t think the adoption of Islamic Sharia law in the UK is unavoidable nor desirable. Just because some British citizens don’t relate to the legal system does not mean that a parallel legal system that they’d be more comfortable with should be adopted. As it is it could be argued that British prisons are full of people that don’t relate to the British legal system should we adopt a separate system for them too. One legal system for drug dealers and another for the rest of us.
This is not the way the British legislative process works nor should it be.
Although if you believe crackpots like Melanie Phillips it is inevitable anyway because of the Government’s appeasement to Islamic extremists and the onset of the Islamification of Europe.
I don’t see how having separate systems brings out social cohesion either as surely it does the exact opposite and only serves to increase the differences between communities.
Also it seems unworkable to me. Which system would take primacy when one party wanted their case heard in a Sharia court but the other party didn’t or in the case of something like adultery which the British legal system doesn’t take a view on but Sharia law does.
He suggests that marital disputes could be dealt with in a Sharia court but in the case of marriages and divorces British civil law takes precedence over Canon law of the Church of England so why should Muslims have it any different.