UK Muslims Reject Sharia

Daily Express [London[
July 10, 2008

http://www.islamicpluralism.org/586/uk-muslims-reject-sharia

TWO-THIRDS of UK Muslims do not want Sharia law, a think-tank said yesterday.

Muslim community leaders warned that any parallel legal system would be a "disaster", especially for Muslims.

The Archbishop of Canter-bury and Lord Chief Justice were attacked for "interfering" after both backed aspects of the Islamic legal system being incorporated into British law.

Stephen Schwartz, executive director of the Centre for Islamic Pluralism, which carried out the research, said: "For non-Muslim authorities to propose the introduction of Sharia as a legal standard for Muslims in any non-Muslim land is not only absurdly patronising and discriminatory, but also violates the canons of traditional Sharia law.

"Sharia has always held that Muslims emigrating to non-Muslim lands are obliged to accept the laws and customs of their new homes."

The centre estimated 65 per cent of people "brusquely repudiated the imposition of Sharia in Britain".

They also hit out at the Archbishop Dr Rowan Williams and Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips for "interfering" in Muslim affairs.

In a magazine article today, Mr Schwartz and the centre's international director, Irfan Al-Alawi, accuse Dr Williams of "mere cluelessness" while Lord Phillips had "done far more damage".

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