Bishop John Packer backs Sharia Law in the UK

Bishop backs Sharia law in UK Thursday, 3rd July 2008. 12:52pm By: Adrian Hall. London: Religious communities should be allowed to uphold their own legal systems when they are not in conflict with human rights, the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds has said. The Rt Rev John Packer told a debate on the rule of law in the House of Lords that it is important religious communities, including Islam, are "not denied the right to uphold ethical and moral standards where they do not infringe basic human rights". His comments come in the light of the Archbishop of Canterbury's controversial remarks about Sharia law. Bishop Packer referred to the Church retaining the right not to marry people who have been divorced and to Jewish Beth Din courts and Somali customary law which enable "disputes to be settled in the security of a particular cultural group without recourse to the secular courts" and provide a "safe haven for independent adjudications". He said he regretted the recent decision to force Roman Catholic adoption agencies to place children with gay couples "overriding the conscientious rights of the Roman Catholics concerned". "There is much within the practices and legal systems of different communities and cultures within our land which we ought to welcome, as well as that which is against human rights which we need to condemn," he said. "Our right defence of human rights must not blind us to the benefits of cultural law." He added: "In our right concern for the rights particularly of women under the law, and in our criticisms of certain provisions of Sharia, we also need to be careful not to condemn all that comes from that particular tradition. "In Leeds, as elsewhere, we have welcomed in particular the provision of Sharia-compliant loans and mortgages as an example of multicultural inclusion that has enabled Muslim businessmen to play their part in the financial economy of our country. "The arguments for and discussion about those loans and mortgages have provided a challenge to our own secular culture, where interest and debt are simply taken for granted." He added: "Protection under the law is crucial to our society and must remain so. "At the same time, we need to defend the rights of cultural and religious groups to affirm ethical and moral standards, not least the rights of Christian communities to do that. Indeed, we can learn from them to enhance the common good of the whole of our culture."

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