Here's a good example of why all believers in Democracy and freedom should fear religion:
From the BBC:
[Archbishop of Canterbury] Dr. Rowan Williams told Radio 4's World at One that the UK has to "face up to the fact" that some of its citizens do not relate to the British legal system.
Dr Williams argues that adopting parts of Islamic Sharia law would help maintain social cohesion.
For example, Muslims could choose to have marital disputes or financial matters dealt with in a Sharia court.
He says Muslims should not have to choose between "the stark alternatives of cultural loyalty or state loyalty".
It is amazing that such ignorant people can be put in a position where any stupid thing they say becomes news. Only religion rewards those who ignore inconvenient facts, practice unreason and simply believe something because they would like it to be true, and puts the best of these "thinkers" at the very top of their organization.
In case anyone might not be immediately appalled at this suggestion, here's the problem: The whole point of Democracy is precisely to reject religious or any other authoritarian systems from creating and enforcing the laws. Sharia Law is the exact opposite of Democracy and always fights against Democracy. It is anathema to Democracy, and vice-versa.
The UK, like America, is a very multicultural nation, and they take some pride in that (not as much as us Americans take in ours, of course). They putatively will take anyone, regardless of race, political or any other orientation, in much they same way that the US loves immigrants: putatively. Neverlethess, the whole point of immigration is to join another culture, not to colonize.
We should not seek to integrate any aspect of Sharia Law into our political system anymore than we ought to embrace racism, the KKK or Naziism to our bosom. These ideas are the very ones that Democracy has always been fighting against. The deeply corrupt nature of Sharia Law is no less insufferable for being Muslim than was the Christian religious rule that governed western nations until very recently.
This is historically OBVIOUS to anyone with their head even partly out of their ass. Now why would an educated Man Of Importance publicly advocate the opposite?
Perhaps because when you spend your life with the explicit goal of rationalizing the inherently flawed suppositions of your bigoted institutions, you can't help but live your life in a delusion. It's like rejecting inoculations for your children because the science behind it (genetics) tells us that all life evolved from a single original life form millions of years ago. Ultimately, its not a winning method.
I'm sure this moron's comments will be repeated in the Christian Extremist press to strike fear into their constituents' hearts, and I'm certain that he will be labeled a "Liberal." So my goal in this diary is simply to make a record that real liberals do still remember that religious rule is the enemy of all free people.
Yes, Mr. Canterbury, it must be insisted that Muslims must choose between the stark realities of religious rule and Democracy, and that choice must be made before emigrating. In fact, one's choice should be the reason for emigrating in the first place. And given that most Muslims do not live under Sharia law, nor desire it, one must wonder how tight the Archbishop's hat really is.