The Archbishop Goes Muslim
TOWNHALL: WASHINGTON -- Islam has a new convert. Some will be surprised, but I am not. The newest convert to the religion of the unshaven face is Archbishop Rowan Williams. Dr. Williams has been the spiritual leader of the Anglican Church in the U.K. However, after his Feb. 7 interview on the BBC, I think we all can agree that he is not so much a spiritual leader as a spiritual capitulator.

In his wonderfully wooly-headed interview, derived from a public lecture delivered by him at the Royal Courts of Justice, Williams called on his countrymen to arrive at "constructive accommodation" with Shariah, which is Islamic law. According to his calculations, the inclusion of Shariah into the British code of law is "unavoidable." Thus if you are visiting London in the future and you appear in a British court, do not be surprised if it is presided over by a smiling mullah. Actually, it is not clear what Rowan knows about Shariah law, and in his BBC interview, he admitted: "I'm no expert on this." Nonetheless, he is calling for the institutionalization of Islam into at least some areas of his country's legal code. Doubtless soon the forward-looking archbishop will be seen lugging a prayer rug over to his local mosque at the appointed hours -- his wife, veiled and obedient, in tow. Shariah law can be pretty demanding.

In some countries where this legal code -- first formulated sometime in the seventh century -- is followed, it enjoins, among other atrocities, the stoning of adulterers, the amputation of body parts, and a kind of female subjugation unimaginable to even the most ardent Western male chauvinist pig. By the way, Shariah law even takes into consideration pigs, as well as mortgages, couture and the care of household pets, which are discouraged. As for pigs, they are considered "unclean." In most countries where Shariah law rules, a ham on rye is malum prohibitum -- pardon my Latin. As I say, Shariah law can be pretty demanding.

This brings me to a matter that Islam's most recent celebrity convert seems not to understand. Shariah law is socially, politically and legally all-embracing. It is not simply a religious faith, as various forms of Christianity are. It is a polity. As Peter G. Riddell, a theologian at the Kairos Journal, wrote in response to Williams on the Web site of The American Spectator, Shariah law "is a system that insists on society's compliance in every sector of human activity: legal, religious, economic, political, and social. Although Muslims may disagree on how to implement Islam as the total package, they do not disagree that Islam is much more than just a private expression of religious belief." So, Dr. Williams, you have had your last ham sandwich, and forget the pigs' knuckles. They are completely off the menu. The Archbishop Goes Muslim >>> By Emmett Tyrrell*

*Emmett Tyrrell is the founder and editor-in-chief of The American Spectator. He is also the author of Madame Hillary: The Dark Road to the White House.

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Sharia Courts? Get Off Your Knees, Archbishop
THE TELEGRAPH: Clergymen inevitably spend much time on their knees. They are supposed to be there in prayer. However, as Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has demonstrated, the Church of England, in particular, loves to genuflect not just to God, but to any threat to the culture of which we all thought it was a central part.

Although we are a secular society - and I stress I write this as an unbeliever myself - the culture of our nation is fundamentally Christian. It cannot but be so when our head of state is also Supreme Governor of the established Church. No one chose that our society should be this way: it is how it has evolved. It has evolved through general consent, under a rule of law, and (for the last 200 years at any rate) via the democratic process. And, as a result, our culture and way of life are accepted to be a sensible basis for our all living together reasonably contentedly.

Why, then, has this idiotic man suggested that some elements of Islam's sharia law should be recognised in Britain? There is no call for it among the majority of Britons, who are quite satisfied with us all being subject to the same laws, and certainly no call for it among his flock. He is doing it for the traditional, British liberal reason: he seeks to capitulate to anyone who offers to challenge the status quo.

All appeasement of those who threaten a settlement - whether it be political, religious, cultural, legal or a mixture of all four - is dangerous and stupid. It is the thin end of the wedge to the overthrow of that settlement. The archbishop argues that Muslims should not be forced to choose between their culture and their country of adoption. I'm sorry, but that is precisely what they - and anybody from any different culture who comes here - must do. Sharia courts? Get off your knees, Archbishop >>> By Simon Heffer

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)