There's a place for sharia

Lord Phillips did his best to dispel misrepresentation of sharia councils. Predictably, though, he's now taking a whipping from the press Back in February, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, got into hot water when in a Radio 4 interview he suggested that the adoption of certain aspects of sharia law in the UK 'seems unavoidable'. Most commentators did not seem to have bothered to read Williams' actual speech which drew parallels between the already existing and well-established network of Orthodox Jewish beth din courts and the more recent sharia councils that have been set up mainly to deal with matrimonial disputes and other civil matters amongst British Muslims. To its shame even the BBC succumbed to sensationalising what were some very thoughtful remarks by Williams into the usual alarmist graphic references... [read full story]