Damian Thompson – Rowan is Finished
What will the Archbishop of Canterbury’s fatuous remarks about Sharia do to his authority as head of the Anglican Communion? Pretty well finish it off, I should think.
For years, African Anglicans have been threatening to blow the "Communion" to smithereens unless Rowan Williams follows their line on homosexuality. He has duly fallen in with their wishes, despite his long (and, in retrospect, phoney) record as a defender of gay rights. But now that Williams has said nice things about Sharia, his credibility in Africa will be destroyed.
Anglicans in parts of Nigeria live under what is, in effect, totalitarian Sharia. It goes without saying Williams does not defend the stoning of adulterous women and other charming Islamic practices. But, in his interview with the BBC, his condemnation of "bad" Sharia is deeply buried in acres of Vichyite waffle about the need to see Sharia "case by case within an overall framework of the principles laid down in the Koran and the Hadith".
For the Archbishop of Canterbury to propose an extension of British Sharia in the same week that we learned of the extent to which the Sharia authorities cover up "honour crimes" reveals a degree of ineptitude that even George Carey never managed.
And, talking of George, watch this space. Lord Carey of Clifton is no fan of his successor, but a very big fan of African Anglicans persecuted by Sharia. I would be very surprised if he can resist intervening in this dispute.
Anyway, I reckon it’s all over for Rowan.
I reckon this is ill-argued and misleading rubbish. It makes for quite a contrast with the Bishop of St Albans’ lucid summary. One small sad thing about the row over RW’s lecture is that it’s Lent – season of penitent self-examination. Not many Christian voices responding to RW seem to have been speaking from such a place. Mine included, one might say, given my first sentence….
Blair
[riffly_video]AA5890C2D94711DCBBCFD0A456B4F508[/riffly_video]
Hi Peter,
have tried to play your video comments but nothing happens – only a blank white space opens up (!). Am I doing something wrong?
in friendship, Blair
Blair, it should load in a flash video. What browser are you using?
Hello,
the very wonderful internet explorer 5… Funnily enough a message popped up the other day to say there’s a Flash player update – I got the update; don’t know if that could have anything to do with it…
Also, just tried to save one of your video comments, hoping that would work – but had message saying cannot download – no such interface supported (or something). Frustrating…
Internet Explorer 5? 5?? FIVE????
What version of windows are you on? Hie thyself to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ where you will bring your ailing PC quickly up to speed.
Bought from some chap who’d been on an ark I believe :)
Thanks for the tip.
Sorry – I know we’re a long way off-topic – but in fact it must be a later version of Explorer than 5 as it’s got tabbed browsing… wouldn’t that make it 6 or 7? Still can’t play the vids!
Blair
Tabbed browsing is IE7 – the current version.
Hmmmm…. try popping along to http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/, install the flash player and see if that helps.