A leading bishop today condemned the furore caused by the Archbishop of Canterbury’s comments on the formalization of sharia law in Britain as a "shame on our nation", after the former home secretary David Blunkett warned of catastrophic consequences.
The Bishop of Hulme, the Rt Rev Stephen Lowe, robustly defended Rowan Williams and said he was appalled at the "kneejerk" reaction to a serious piece of academic work.
"We have probably one of the greatest and the brightest Archbishops of Canterbury we have had for many a long day," he told BBC Radio 4’s World at One.
"The way he has been ridiculed, lampooned and treated by some people, and indeed some of the media within this process, is quite disgraceful. It is a shame on our nation."
The bishop said Williams had raised a vital issue for a society facing many multicultural challenges.
"He has a responsibility as leader of the established church in making sure the spiritual life of this nation is as healthy as possible. I believe he was doing that yesterday.
"I believe he was standing up for the different faith communities and the ways in which they are treated and was raising questions for people to debate in our society about the way in which Islam is treated alongside Judaism, Christianity and other faiths."
Williams yesterday claimed the adoption of elements of Islamic sharia law in the UK "seems unavoidable". He said there was a place for finding a "constructive accommodation" in areas such as marriage that could allow Muslim women to avoid western divorce proceedings.
The comments drew criticism from across the political spectrum as well as from religious groups. Gordon Brown’s spokesman insisted British law would be based on British values, and sharia law would be no justification for acting against national law.
Blunkett said Williams’ views were "very dangerous" and said people must not be excluded from the law because of their culture or faith.
"I think this is very dangerous because the archbishop used the term ‘affiliations’," Blunkett told BBC Radio 4’s Today program. "We have affiliations to football clubs, to cricket teams, to all sorts of things that aren’t central to our citizenship and the acceptance of that in terms of a common society.
"We don’t have affiliations when it comes to the question of the law. And when it comes to equality under the law, we have to be rigorous in terms of making sure people do not find themselves excluded from it because of cultural or faith reasons."
Formalizing sharia law "would be wrong democratically and philosophically, but it would be catastrophic in terms of social cohesion," he warned.
The Bishop of Southwark, the Right Rev Tom Butler, acknowledged the archbishop had strayed into "a minefield" but insisted he had also raised legitimate questions.
"It might be better to formalize them [sharia councils] under British law, to make sure they do correspond to British law. But there are real practical difficulties."
The prominent Islamic scholar Professor Tariq Ramadan, who teaches at Oxford University, said: "These kinds of statements just feed the fears of fellow citizens and I really think we, as Muslims, need to come with something that we abide by the common law and within these latitudes there are possibilities for us to be faithful to Islamic principles."
The archbishop won support from the Conservative MP Peter Bottomley, who said he had accurately described the present situation.
"For example, if I have a Muslim employee, I rightly make reasonable accommodation to meet their religious obligations. Ministers have been all over the radio and television for the past two years saying how they have adapted the financial laws to make sharia-compliant banking possible," he said.
The Ramadhan Foundation, an educational and welfare body, said the speech was "testament to [Williams’] attempts to understand Islam and promote tolerance and respect between our great faiths".
Ibrahim Mogra, of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "We’re looking at a very small aspect of sharia for Muslim families when they choose to be governed with regards to their marriage, divorce, inheritance, custody of children and so forth.
"Let’s debate this issue. It is very complex. It is not as straightforward as saying that we will have a system here."
Williams said yesterday: "It seems unavoidable and, as a matter of fact, certain conditions of sharia are already recognized in our society and under our law, so it is not as if we are bringing in an alien and rival system.
"We already have in this country a number of situations in which the internal law of religious communities is recognized by the law of the land as justifying conscientious objections in certain circumstances.
"There are ways of looking at marital disputes, for example, which provide an alternative to the divorce courts as we understand them."
Sharia law sets out a broad code of conduct for all aspects of life, from diet and wearing of the hijab to marriage and divorce.