Our religious laws have a lot in common

SHAN BARCLAY, Caernavon Road, Norwich, plus RECHAD BALGOBIN, JO BISSONNET, JEAN DAVIS, LESLEY GRAHAME, MUHAMMAD JOBE, ED AND PHYLL MENDELSOHN, Dr MUSA SAID, BYRON AND BEVERLY SIMMONDS.

We write as individual members of the local Muslim and Jewish communities who are deeply concerned by some of the comments on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s statements.

Our communities know what it is to experience prejudice and distrust stemming from lack of knowledge and misunderstanding.

Dr Rowan Williams highlighted the fact that Muslims (like Jews and Christians) have a legal system founded in religious understanding. In fact, Shariah law has much in common with both Judaic and Christian law and comes from the same origin, sharing fundamental principles such as equality before the law, the protection of rights, the prohibition of killing, theft and false testimony, all of which are already incorporated within the British legal system.

The reconciliation of national law with elements of religious law in minority communities is already accepted; the British legal system recognises, for example, Jewish marriages in the synagogue without the need for a separate civil ceremony. Dr Williams’ remarks legitimately raise the issue of possibly extending such arrangements so as to recognise some civil elements of Shariah law, for example that pertaining to marriages in the mosque. We would maintain that this would in no way abrogate British law, rather extend its cohesiveness.

Dr Williams has offered us an opportunity to consider the nature of the law according to which we all live in this country and the possibility of accommodating certain elements of religious law within minority communities with it. Some of the reaction to his remarks has unfortunately been ill-informed and ill-founded, which can only serve to polarise opinion and communities within our country at a time when mutual understanding and respect have never been so urgently needed.