Sharia Law and Multiculturalism
Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams’s statements advocating the introduction of Sharia law for muslim residents of the UK has drawn plenty of well-deserved criticism. Johann Hari, writing for The Independent, offers some particularly enlightening commentary. He argues that by advocating Sharia law, Williams has pushed the doctrine of multiculturalism to its logical conclusion and unwittingly demonstrated its final absurdity.
Yet many people feel instinctively uncomfortable when we talk about ditching multiculturalism – for a good reason. The only alternative they are aware of is the old whiter-than-white monoculturalism.
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There is a better way for the state to understand and regulate human differences, beyond the old oppositions of [a unified National Culture] and multiculturalism. It is called liberalism.
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The job of a liberal state is not to stamp The True National Essence on its citizens, nor to promote “difference” for its own sake. It is to uphold the equal rights of every individual – whether they are white men or Muslim women. It has one liberal culture, with freedoms used differently by different people.
Hear, hear!
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