Archbishop defends Sharia law comment

THE Archbishop of Canterbury defended yesterday his right to broach the sensitive subject of Sharia law, but accepted that comments which triggered a storm may have been unclear.

Addressing church leaders over the row, which has seen calls for his resignation as head of the Anglican Church, he accepted responsibility for misunderstandings over his initial remarks last week.

“I must of course take responsibility for any unclarity” or “any misleading choice of words that has helped cause distress or misunderstanding,” he told the General Synod, the Church of England’s governing body.

But he added: “I believe quite strongly that it is not inappropriate for a pastor of the Church of England to discuss the perceived concerns of other religious communities and try to bring them into better public focus.”

Dr Williams has drawn heavy criticism since he said that the adoption of some parts of sharia law alongside Britain’s legal system “seems unavoidable” in certain circumstances.

Much of the debate has been centred on the potential for division between ethnic communities in Britain, particularly the country’s 1.6 million Muslims.

Earlier, Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s spokesman praised Williams as a man of “great integrity”.

“The archbishop has been clarifying and setting in a wider context, the comments he has made, and I’m sure he will continue to do so,” the spokesman said.

He added though, that “The prime minister is very clear that British laws must be based on British values and that religious law, while respecting other cultures, should be subservient to British criminal and civil law,” he said.