THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 120, May 12, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
A SCHISM OVER SHARI'A IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND
By Dr. David J. Rusin
TWO FUNDAMENTALLY OPPOSED MODELS OF SOCIOPOLITICAL ORGANIZATION: MULTICULTURALISM, WHICH
BESTOWS EQUAL STANDING UPON DIFFERENT CULTURES IN THE PUBLIC SQUARE, & UNIVERSALISM, WHICH
BESTOWS EQUAL STANDING UPON INDIVIDUALS WHO WIELD A COMMON SET OF RIGHTS & RESPONSIBILITIES -- BRITAIN'S
INCREASING ACCEPTANCE OF MULTICULTURALISM & ACCOMODATION OF THE STRICTURES OF ISLAMIC LAW --
DISCARDING THE PRIMARY ACHIEVEMENT OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION: A SYSTEM IN WHICH ALL LIVE AS EQUALS
BEFORE A SINGLE STANDARD OF LAW -- ENCOURAGING THE CREATION OF HOMEGROWN ISLAMISTS -- THE GROWING
INTERNAL ISLAMIST THREAT TO BRITAIN, EUROPE, & THE BROADER WEST
FULL STORY:
The debate over the trajectory of the Western sociopolitical system and its strained relations with Islam is the most pivotal
of our time, as approaches decided upon today will impact billions not yet born. Two prelates in the ever more fractious
Church of England provide a microcosm of this discourse.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and Bishop of Rochester Michael Nazir-Ali have emerged as central combatants
in the dispute between two fundamentally opposed models of social organization: multiculturalism and universalism. The
former bestows equal standing upon different cultures in the public square. The latter bestows equal standing upon
individuals who wield a common set of rights and responsibilities. Which system prevails will ultimately determine the level
of danger that homegrown Islamists pose to Britain, Europe, and the broader West.
Nazir-Ali believes that Britain's campaign to reconstitute itself as a multicultural society has failed, and he explained why in
a January 6, 2008, op-ed. By emphasizing differences over common values, his country has promoted alienation among
Muslims, many of whom are "living as separate communities, continuing to communicate in their own languages, and
having minimum need for building healthy relationships with the majority." Since segregation breeds extremism,
Islamist-dominated "no-go areas" now dot the map.
Indeed, as Britain increasingly accommodates the strictures of Islamic law in both welfare and finance, the radicalization of
its Muslims continues apace. According to a 2006 Channel 4 survey, nearly one-quarter see the 7/7 London bombings as
justifiable. A 2007 Policy Exchange poll found that 40% of Muslims under 24 prefer to be governed by Shari'a, while a
shocking 36% believe that apostates from Islam should be "punished by death." Extremist views are far more common
among younger Muslims, portending trouble on the horizon.
The death threats that followed Nazir-Ali's essay only bolstered his thesis. "The irony is that I had similar threats when I
was a bishop in Pakistan," he noted, "but I never thought I would have them here." The rejection of reason is particularly
disturbing to this learned man:
"If you disagree, that must be met by counterarguments, not
by trying to silence people. It was a threat not just to me, but
to my family. … It gave me sleepless nights."
Rowan Williams was likewise losing sleep — over the "damage" done by Nazir-Ali's frank assessment of multicultural
pieties. Speaking to the BBC on February 7, he ignited a firestorm of his own by suggesting that the official
acceptance of some facets of Shari'a not only "seems unavoidable," but could actually improve social cohesion. To
Williams, the idea that "there's one law for everybody and that's all there is to be said, and anything else that commands
your loyalty or allegiance is completely irrelevant in the processes of the courts — I think that's a bit of a danger."
In one sentence, Britain's most influential cleric effectively discarded the primary achievement of Western Civilization:
a system in which all live as equals before a single standard of law. The logical consequences of his worldview were
underscored by Melanie Phillips: "If there is no one law, there is no one national identity and therefore no society, but,
instead, a set of warring fiefdoms with their own separate jurisdictions."
Williams and Nazir-Ali also illustrate how one's preferred method of social organization — multiculturalism or
universalism — frequently boils down to whether one acknowledges the righteousness of the Western enterprise.
Preoccupation with the real and imagined crimes of the West can serve as a gateway to Islamist apologetics. And the
Archbishop is Exhibit A.
Regarding the free market, Williams sees only suffering: "Every transaction in the developed economies of the West
can be interpreted as an act of aggression against the economic losers in the worldwide game." And America's role on
the international stage is, of course, the height of iniquity. In contrast, he often excuses horrors committed in the name
of Islam. While condemning terrorism, he has suggested that terrorists can "have serious moral goals." He also laments
the challenges faced by Middle Eastern Christians, but portrays them as victims of Western policies, rather than of the
Islamists threatening their lives.
Unlike Rowan Williams, Michael Nazir-Ali witnessed the realities of Shari'a law and radical Islam firsthand as a young
Pakistani. These experiences eventually led him to Britain's shores — and to an admiration for the freedoms nurtured in
the West. Like Magdi Allam, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im, Salman Rushdie and Ibn Warraq, the future
Bishop escaped the stifling oppression of Shari'a to become an outspoken champion of Western values.
Shari'a "would be in tension with the English legal tradition on questions like monogamy, provisions for divorce, the
rights of women, custody of children, laws of inheritance and of evidence," Nazir-Ali said in response to Williams'
BBC interview. "This is not to mention the relation of freedom of belief and of expression to provisions for
blasphemy and apostasy." His statement reveals a keen understanding of the two groups that suffer an inferior status
under Shari'a: women and non-Muslims.
Not satisfied with abstract musings, Nazir-Ali applies this knowledge to contemporary problems. In March he quizzed a
Home Office minister on whether women threatened by forced marriages are being adequately protected, and last year
he urged Muslim leaders to condemn violence against apostates. Williams, in contrast, has said little about either issue.
The Bishop of Rochester has also criticized amplification of the call to prayer, demanded that Britain carefully scrutinize
foreign Imams, and spoken out against face-covering veils — even as Williams insists that an attempt to limit them
would be "politically dangerous."
Nazir-Ali contends that the Western ethos did not arise by chance, but proceeded from "the Bible's teaching that we
have equal dignity and freedom because we are all made in God's image." Islamist encroachments are therefore
symptoms of a more fundamental problem. "The real danger to Britain today is the spiritual and moral vacuum that has
occurred for the last 40 or 50 years. When you have such a vacuum, something will fill it," he recently warned. "Do the
British people really want to lose that rooting in the Christian faith that has given them everything they cherish — art,
literature, architecture, institutions, the monarchy, their value system, their laws?"
Only time will tell.
Historians may one day look back on these two prelates and the Church they serve — a body faced with plummeting
attendance and approaching disestablishment — as symbols of the early Twenty-first Century discourse over the future
of the West. For now, Michael Nazir-Ali and Rowan Williams illuminate the diverging paths before us: one paved with
an ardent defense of Western liberties, the other with a nihilism that leads inexorably to dhimmitude.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Britain -- The United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland:
Mother Country & Close Ally of the United States of America
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
---------------------------
CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY & OTHER POLITICAL REGIMES
Modern Constitutional Democracy:
Fundamental Character & Essential Ingredients
Constitutionalism: The First Essential Ingredient
of Modern Constitutional Democracy
Dictatorship: The Opposite of Constitutionalism
Representative Democracy: The Second Essential Ingredient
of Modern Constitutional Democracy
Direct Democracy & Representative Democracy
Political Culture & Modern Constitutional Democracy
Modern Constitutional Democracy:
Summary & Conclusion
David J. Rusin is a research associate at Islamist Watch and a Philadelphia-based editor for Pajamas Media. He
holds a Ph.D. in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Pennsylvania. Please feel free to contact him at
rusin@meforum.org.
The foregoing article by David J. Rusin was originally published in the American Thinker, May 11, 2008, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(Article URL: http://www.meforum.org/article/1890)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
May 12, 2008
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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