LONDON -- On Feb. 7, Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Anglican Church, said that Britain should allow Muslims to use sharia law alongside the British legal system. He said the introduction of sharia in family law was "unavoidable." Williams said Jews and Catholics also should be allowed to uses "plural jurisprudence" in matters of religious conscience; for example, Catholic organizations should be able to avoid laws banning discrimination against lesbians and gays.
There was a great outcry in the press and on the Internet denouncing the archbishop's idea. A spokesperson for Prime Minister Gordon Brown ...