Sarx

The Right Wing in England is all in a lather. Ruth’s certainly playing the race card calling the Archbishop of Canterbury “Bonkers” and showing rather horrifying (and perhaps Photoshoped) pictures of Muslim Extremists.

Why?

well, here’s a interview with the Archbishop:

Christopher Landau (BBC) asks: To begin with you’ve given this vision of if as a nation Britain wants to achieve social cohesion, that challenge is how to accommodate those of religious faith in relation to the law; and you’re words are that the application of Sharia in certain circumstances if we want to achieve this cohesion and take seriously peoples’ religion seems unavoidable?

+Canterbury replies: It seem unavoidable and indeed as a matter of fact certain provision of Sharia are already recognised in our society and under our law; so it’s not as if we’re bringing in an alien and rival system; we already have in this country a number of situations in which the law the internal law of religious communities is recognised by the law of the land as justified conscientious objections in certain circumstances in providing certain kinds of social relations, so I think we need to look at this with a clearer eye and not imagine either we know exactly what we mean by Sharia and not just associate it with what we read about Saudi Arabia or wherever.

The Great Majority of comments on Ruth’s blog indicate that there is a very active Religious Right in the UK (although I suspect a good many of them are from the USA).

Thankfully, Bishop Alan’s Blog makes a clear reply about Abdul the Bogeyman:

At the time of Roman Catholic emancipation back in 1829 we experienced big social hysteria about how people who theoretically owe allegiance to other systems of law could be completely part of English society. We’ve pretty much managed to work that one out — the whole idea that Roman Catholics are a sinister fifth column is just wrong, though this crazy notion has deep roots in English history. Loyal is as loyal does. Within the overarching framework of monarchy we’re all still here, and the deep fried hysteria from 1780 (the Gordon riots) or 1685 (the Popish Plot) seems, frankly, potty. From this we learn that the English sometimes do hysterical kneejerks. Best check that the bogeymen really are bogeymen. In a country containing people who don’t know the difference between a paediatrician and a paedophile, this is particularly important.

I think the parallel is very important: the Romans stopped trying to take over the UK after the Spanish Armada. The modern, secular folks of the UK have no more to fear from the Muslims than the Protestants have to fear from the Papists.

The good Bishop closes with these words of wisdom –

“Hysteria about Bogeymen is a great British Tradition. [And a great American one - DHR] It gets people talking. But when they do, historically, they usually talk rubbish.”