BRITAIN:CONSERVATIVE LEADER David Cameron has warned against any expansion of Sharia or Islamic law in the UK, saying it would represent "the logical endpoint of the now discredited doctrine of state multiculturalism".
In a speech on "Extremism, individual rights and the rule of law in Britain" yesterday, Mr Cameron affirmed religious freedom as "a cardinal principle of the British liberal tradition", while asserting that "liberalism also means this: that there is a limit to the role of religion in public life". The Tory leader also put passion "about equality for all, the rights of minorities - everyone who makes up our country" at the heart of the "liberal conservatism" he represents.
"This liberal conservatism also recognises that when it comes to cohesion, as important as questions of citizenship, . . . law and religion are the issues of poverty, social mobility and opportunity," he said.
"Cohesion is as much about rich and poor, included and left behind as it is about English and Scot or Muslim and Christian. A society that consistently denies some of its people the chance to escape poverty . . . and to feel their contribution is part of a national effort; such a society will struggle to inspire loyalty, however many citizenship classes it provides."
However, Mr Cameron also used the opportunity of the debate hosted by the Equality and Human Rights Commission to argue that respecting different cultures "to the point of encouraging them to live separate lives" had weakened rather than strengthened collective identity in the UK. Moreover, he took issue with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, who sparked controversy with his recent suggestion that the incorporation of limited aspects of Sharia might be "unavoidable".
Mr Cameron said the archbishop had been wrestling with issues of law, identity, faith and their place in a secular society, and that he had "tried in good faith to understand what he meant".
If Dr Williams meant it was fine for two Muslims to agree a contract in line with Sharia principles, but under the ultimate jurisdiction of English law, Mr Cameron said that this could already happen.
"But, on the other, if the archbishop was not talking about the status quo - about what already exists - the danger is that he is actually suggesting something else . . . something more akin to different laws for different communities," Mr Cameron suggested. This, he continued, "would be dangerous and illiberal" because in Britain "all citizens are equal before the law".