10.2.08

 

Tendring Topics (on line)

 

Sharia Law and the Archbishop

 

I am always a little uneasy when I find myself in agreement with the headline writers of the national press.  Could there be some valid and telling point that I have missed or failed to take into consideration?   However – if I'm to be honest – I have to say that, when I first read the Archbishop of Canterbury's reported comments about some parts of Sharia law being introduced into the United Kingdom, my  reaction wasn't very different from those of the newspaper headlines.

 

My shock was all the greater because I had hitherto considered all earlier reported pronouncements of the Archbishop to be very wise and far-sighted.

 

One thing that seems to have been overlooked amid all the tumult, is that British law already makes provision for the consciences of religious minorities – a circumstance that has been achieved over many centuries and by the blood of untold numbers of martyrs.

 

   The days when we burned errant Archbishops at the stake, when alleged witches were hanged, when Jews were persecuted and when those whose religious views differed from those of the majority could, at the very best, expect to languish in gaol for years, have thank God, long since gone.

 

We Quakers, for instance, are legally permitted to conduct our weddings in our own way, without the presence of either an ordained priest or minister or a government registrar. Many sincere Christians including Quakers, as well as agnostics, object to swearing oaths on the Bible in Court.  Jesus Christ, after all, said 'Swear not at all – but let your yea be yea and your nay be nay', which seems pretty unequivocal to me.  In court we are now allowed to make an affirmation rather than swear an oath.  Quakers are not alone in their testimony against all war and violence. This is accepted by law in the provision made for conscientious objection to military service. 

 

Other minorities are permitted to slaughter sheep and cattle for food in a way that would be illegal for the rest of us and to perform a ritual surgical operation on male infants that would otherwise be permitted only for a medical reason and by a qualified surgeon.

 

Perhaps in other fields there may be a demand for similar exemptions.  If a convincing case were to be made for them I am sure that Parliament would consider it.  It seems possible, from the Archbishop's later statement, that that was what he had meant.  I very much hope so – and wish that he had chosen his words a little more carefully.  But then, I am sure that he wishes that too!

 

The repercussions of the Archbishop's remarks have made me realize the need for leaders of every Christian tradition and indeed of every faith in this country to urge governments in every land in the world to grant and ensure the same rights for religious minorities (in many countries it will be a Christian minority) that adherents of every religion and every faith tradition enjoy in the United Kingdom:  the right to worship without fear or hindrance; the right to build their own places of worship;  the right to instruct children in their faith, to proselytise and to make and accept converts to their faith;  the right of any individual to change his or her faith without persecution or any temporal penalty.

 

I hope that our Government and the European Union would wholeheartedly support such a campaign – even in countries on which we are dependent for oil or with which we have lucrative arms contracts!

 

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