BBC: And in your situation you see the reality of what Sharia law can be.
BK: We have experienced it. We know it and in the last nine years full blown Sharia law has been introduced in at least 11 states in Northern Nigeria, and what the church are experiencing in these states is, to say the least, unbearable.
BBC: How surprised are you that a Christian Archbishop should have suggested, in some circumstances, that Sharia might be an appropriate part of the legal system in a country like Britain?
BK. I am shocked. I am disappointed. I am in total disbelief. Because my hope is that when he, Archbishop of Canterbury, comes to Nigeria for example, and he comes to visit us, we will take him to our leaders, some of whom are Muslims and some of whom are Christians, and he can then speak on our behalf where we are not having a fair share. Can we now look up to him as a man who can speak on our behalf? You all know about the cutting of hands in Zamfara State. You remember the case of the woman in Kaduna State who was going to be stoned to death. All of those kinds of things are what we now are saying that we must examine carefully the implementation of Sharia and we are putting our discussions across with our own Muslim friends around here.
Please don’t let this reality intrude into the ABC’s universe.
It is patently obvious whatever the advertisements say that whatever happens in Vegas does not stay in Vegas. I believe that the ABC might be coming to an understanding of that. I hope he does. Unfortunately, he has opened the box and the spirits of Sharia are again loosed upon the world by his over-accepting benignity that means something on the ground below his academic tower of babel-ing.
Although the noise in England and the CofE is the most vocal – and it is raging, it is the effect that this has had to the witness of Christians, often persecuted Christians that is the most damaging. As an instrument of unity Dr Williams is damaged goods. I would like to see a prompt apology and him on the phone reassuring his flock….and when he has finished, not put the phone down and keep talking to find out the real conditions people are dealing with and why they have been so distressed by the line he has taken.
And no more lectures on law, the environment, carbon footprints please. Just your job.
Re #3: What is he going to apologize for? Most of the suggestions seem to be that he should not have used the word “sharia” while giving the keynote address to a mixed group of Muslim and Christian legal scholars at a seminar to discuss their respective legal systems and the interaction between them. What word should he have used? Most of the remaining suggestions boil down to “Send them back to Pakistan if they won’t drink lager and ogle Page 3 girls.”
Read +Ben Kwashi Dale.
I disapprove totally of the Sun’s reporting and campaign and the xenophobic reactions I have read.