Archbishop defends sharia law comments

By Richard Gray | Last Updated: 10:42am GMT 09/02/2008


The Archbishop of Canterbury has hit back at calls for his resignation over his comments on sharia law.

Dr Rowan Williams insisted he "certainly did not call for its introduction as some kind of parallel jurisdiction to the civil law".

In a statement on his website, the Archbishop said he made no proposals for sharia but was simply "exploring ways in which reasonable accommodation might be made within existing arrangements for religious conscience".

He said his aim was to tease out some of the broader issues around the rights of religious groups within a secular state, using "sharia as an example".

His statement comes after he faced calls for his resignation from members of the General Synod, the Church of England's "parliament".

Angry members of the Synod claimed he was undermining the Christian faith after Dr Williams said the introduction of Muslim laws into the UK was "unavoidable".

Senior bishops and politicians have also challenged the Archbishop's view that aspects of Islamic law could be incorporated into British legal systems.

But Dr Williams sought to clarify his comments in a lecture at the Royal Courts of Justice on Thursday.

Friends of the Archbishop have said he was ...

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