The Archbishop is little more than a posh John Prescott in a black dress
Rod Liddle is infuriated by a church leader who refuses to confront the inhumanity perpetrated in the name of Islam or the consequences — visible in Malaysia — of legal apartheid
There is at least one country in the world where, for reasons of political and demographic expediency, sharia law applies to one section of the community while the rest enjoy entirely secular law. That country is Malaysia, where some 60 per cent of the population are ethnic Malays (and thus defined, whether they like it or not, as Muslim at birth) and 24 per cent are the economically powerful Chinese. There’s an awful lot to admire about Malaysia, not least its prosperity, stability and comparative lack of ethnic tension. Nonetheless, the Rowan Williams model of separate laws for certain sections of the population has created what many Malays see as a form of apartheid. And perhaps uniquely in the history of the world, an apartheid in which the dominant ethnic group discriminates against itself. Progressive secular legislation has ensured that Malaysia’s non-Muslim citizens enjoy the sort of human rights that most of us in the West enjoy; but the Islamic family courts ensure that the major-ity Muslim population abide by a different code, with men able to divorce their wives by text messaging, indulge in polygamy, have full guardianship of their children and a far greater proportion of inherited money than their non-Muslim fellow citizens.
The most outspoken critic of this self-imposed apartheid comes not from the Chinese or the Christian communities of Malaysia — but a Muslim woman, Marina Mahathir, the daughter of the former prime minister of Malaysia Mahathir bin Mohamad, and about as establishment a figure as one can find. ‘In this country, Malaysian women are going backwards,’ she wrote, in a heavily censored article for the Malaysian Daily Star. ‘We can only look at our non-Muslim sisters in despair and envy.’
But Rowan, the intellectual, didn’t use Malaysia as a case study. He didn’t use anything as a case study. He just spoke, with characteristic ‘unclarity’. He does not know what he is talking about.
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Cicero
February 14th, 2008 3:09pmA great joy to read this. Good on yer Rod. Keep on sticking it to these waffling, pumped-up, self-righteous pseuds.
Herbert Thornton
February 14th, 2008 6:00pmI found one of these questions and it's required answer on another web site, so I checked it in my family's Book of Common Prayer.
Sure enough it - and several others - were there, under the heading - "The form of ordaining or consecrating of an Archbishop or Bishop."
Three of these questions and their required answers are below.
I presume that on his consecration as Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams both heard the questions and gave the required answers -
"ARE you persuaded that you be truly called to this Ministration, according to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the order of this Realm?"
Answer. "I am so persuaded."
"WILL you then faithfully exercise yourself in the same holy scriptures, and call upon God by prayer, for the true understanding of the same; so that you may be able by them to teach and exhort with wholesome doctrine, and to withstand and convince the gainsayers?"
Answer. "I will do so by the help of God."
"ARE you ready, with all faithful diligence, to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrine contrary to God’s Word; and both privately and openly to call upon and encourage others to the same?"
Answer: "I am ready, the Lord being my helper."
Words that surely cry out for attention are "the order of this Realm"; "withstand and convince the gainsayers"; and "drive away all erroneous and strange doctrine".
It seems to me that this Archbishop has either forgotten those words, or deliberately abandoned them. Even worse, did he even believe in them in the first place, so that his answers were lies?
ian skidmore
February 14th, 2008 7:47pmThi is just silly and quite unworthy of Liddle whose work I usually admire. TheArchbishop ws opening a debate whiuch is perfeclty proper. I do not agree with his proposition but will defend etc.......
Our Man in Lisbon
February 15th, 2008 1:08amGood to see Liddle back on form. Interesting that this Skidmore fellow defends the A of C for opening the debate yet condemns Liddle for joining it.
John, Basingstoke
February 15th, 2008 9:09amI cannot agree more, this bumbling fool has aroused such anger in me, well,my utterances exploded into unprintable expletitives over this appeasement driven moron who mimicks and leads the ridiculous bunch of "Neville Chamberlist" tree huggers that control the Church of England today and drive it to even lower disrepute and scorn. For the record my great grandfather was a Bishop, how he must be squirming over this sorry now irrelavent institution.
ian skidmore
February 15th, 2008 11:48amIf only Liddle ha joined he debate tis Skidmore fellow would have been delighted, but then he believes that name calling has no place in intelligent discourse.
Richard Walker
February 15th, 2008 3:36pmLiddle’s brilliant analysis would be so uplifting were not the implications of the Archbishop utterances so depressing. Not only has Williams damaged the Church of England, betrayed his own Bishops and endangered the lives of Christians throughout the world, he now shrouds his stupidity behind the word unclarity. How honest of this intellectual man of God! Let us hope that he is encouraged to resign since there are excellent candidates who have the competences to lead the Church of England. York, Rochester and London come to mind.
Michael W Stone BA FBIS
February 15th, 2008 4:41pmWhat's new about the majority ethnic groupd discrimuinating against itself? I thought that was how things had been in Britain ever since the Race Relations industry got started. As for Malaysia, by Rod's own statement Moslem and non-Moslem live together in prosperity and with little ethnic tension. Sounds pretty good. No doubt the system has its injustices but what system doesn't? Do mothers fare any worse in Malaysian custody cases that fathers often do in British ones? It all sounds perfectly workable, and appears to be keeping the peace, so if that's what the Archbishop was advocating, it would seem an entirely reasonable suggestion. BTW I am not an Anglican.
Simplicius
February 15th, 2008 4:44pmOh, yes, Williams does seem to make it up as he goes along, and doesn't seem to be particularly interested in Christianity. I loved the following article about how Williams went to China and declared the Christians had become "freer" to practice Christianity....he kowtows a little too often, and, it seems, to the wrong people. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/10/24/wrowan24.xml
rosemary
February 19th, 2008 3:27pmMay I suggest people read the Archbishop's lecture to lawyers on Faith and the Law, and then read the Pope's lecture to scientists on Faith and Reason? They will then be able to compare their respective academic scholarship and intelligence.
Barry
February 20th, 2008 5:51pmAround the time of the speech I got a Mint card. Perhaps this is all my fault?
Nick ( Forward in Faith )
February 24th, 2008 10:26pmSurely the prime requirement of all bishops( including archbishops) is to preach the Gospel of Christ,not to be an apologist for Islam or any other religion.Respect their right to choose their own religion yes.British law is based on CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES AND THOSE CHOOSING to live here must accept this fact and abide by BRITISH LAW WHICH HAS STOOD THE TEST OF TIME