Here's a couple of very interesting (one of them alarming) stories from the Daily Mail (U.K.) following up on the recent remarks of Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams' call for the acceptance of Sharia law in Great Britain. (If you missed it, see yesterday's Vital Signs Blog post here.)The first story tells of the huge outcry against the "gullible" Archbishop's comments, an outcry from not only the public at large but from important leaders in Williams' own Church of England.
One cleric, identified only as a long-standing member of the Church's governing body the General Synod, told The Times that many people had now lost confidence in the Archbishop.
"I am just so shocked, and cannot believe a man of his intelligence could be so gullible," he said. "I can only assume that all the Muslims he meets are senior leaders of the community who tell him what a wonderful book the Koran is. "There have been a lot of calls today for him to resign. I don't suppose he will take any notice, but yes, he should resign."
In the second story, the Daily Mail reports that Sharia "law courts" are already dealing with crime on the streets of London. As an example, the newspaper explains how a recent knifing assault was punted by the police over to the "uncles and fathers" in a Somali neighborhood to decide on. Other matters are being decided by self-governing Islamic groups as well. An Islamic Council in the city of Leyton revealed that it had already handled more than 7,000 cases while sharia courts in London have settled hundreds of financial disputes.
