Sharia is for Everyone!

One of the most ridiculous proposals I read lately was the one by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, who is also leader of the Anglican church. He proposed to allow certain parts of the Sharia, the central body for the Islamic law, to be used in western societies. By allowing Muslims to apply the Sharia in questions of day-to-day life like marital or financial matters he wants to raise the acceptance of Muslims for western life style.

In the first place I wonder why this is necessary at all? Yes, everybody should have the right to move to a place where he wants to live. And western societies seem to be very appealing because of their prosperity. But this prosperity results from a certain society model. So if somebody wants his part of the prosperity he has to be part of the society - including its rules and laws. It's not necessary to like everything, and there are definitely many things that can be improved in these societies. But immigrating people first have to accept the rules and laws - and not the rules and laws have to be changed for immigrating people!

Second why is the church that tolerant against the Islam? Let's have a look at other relevant groups like homosexuals. The same Dr. Rowan Williams on an openly gay bishop:

In most of our provinces the election of Canon Gene Robinson would not have been possible since his chosen lifestyle would give rise to a canonical impediment to his consecration as a bishop.

If his consecration proceeds, we recognise that we have reached a crucial and critical point in the life of the Anglican Communion and we have had to conclude that the future of the Communion itself will be put in jeopardy.

In my opinion that's hypocritical.

Another issue with this proposal is outlined by Henryk M. Broder (That's where the title of this post is from.): Can British who are not Muslims also select the rules of the Sharia - and only marry for a certain period? No longer "Until Death Do Us Part" for Christian marriage?

Broder writes often about inter-cultural matters. Lately he wrote an article entitled Suicide for Fear of Dead (German). And that's really what the actions (German) in these western societies look like:

• In Brussels (Belgium) policemen were instructed to no longer smoke and drink in public during Ramadan - to not offend Muslims.


• In Zürich (Switzerland) they should even refrain from drinking and eating for one day - to learn more about Islamic culture.


• The BBC appends "Peace be upon him" whenever they name the Prophet. Broder mentions that it might be ridiculous when the BBC reports about suicide bombers in the name of Allah and the Prophet, peace be upon him.


• Following the British interior ministry "Islamic extremism" is now "anti-Islamic activities".


• The Bishop of Breda (Netherlands), Tiny Muskens, proposed to rename God to Allah.


• In Canada completely veiled women are allowed to vote when they have two identity certifications and one witness of identity.

Respect for other cultures is good - but this goes way too far. Do officials in Arabic countries fast during the Lenting season? Can basic rights in voting still be assured if the person voting can not even be identified? I wonder what they are doing on the air ports - or is security more important than those fundamental rights?

Another ridiculous proposal came from the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan: Germany should establish Turkish high schools and universities. (Turks are by far the biggest group of immigrants in Germany.) Necla Kelek calls his push for Turkish educational institutions an "intrigue against integration" (German) - and I fully agree with her. This does not help with integration but makes the separation permanent.

Yes, a lot has been done wrong in integration of immigrants in many western societies. But the examples above are misunderstood integration. Integration means helping the immigrants to adapt their way of living, to learn the language and the culture. It does not mean that the immigrants have to give up their own culture - as long as the habits comply with the rules and laws. And especially it does not mean that the affiliating society has to change for the immigrants.

Lately there was also a discussion in Germany about integration. It all got started with a brutal attack on a pensioner by a Greek and a Turkish young man in Munich. State Governor of Hesse, Roland Koch, used this as an opportunity to make an embarrassing and polemic election campaign against "criminal young foreigners". Indeed the ratio of foreigners to the whole population is disproportionate to the committed crimes in Germany. (The numbers are quite different. While they form around 10% of the German population around 20% of the suspected criminals (German) are immigrants.) But this is probably more a problem of social background than origin - foreigners are just not criminals per se. And here we are back to the questions of integration. According to the PISA study in hardly any country the social background determines the future chances as much as in Germany. By the way, not suprisingly Roland Koch got applause from the Neo-Nazis for his campaign - and luckily it backfired though his party still won the election.

So the western societies definitely have to do their homework in questions of integration - not by giving up their culture or basic rights, but by welcoming the immigrants, by helping them to get started and provide fair chances. Starting a new life in Germany does not seem to be easy. The people still have to learn a lot, even after 50 years of major integration. Eventually Germany can't without immigrants.

Update: There is now also an article about Dr. Rowan Williams available on the English Spiegel Online website, taken from Der Spiegel magazine, which provides more background information.

Update: Henryk M. Broder wrote a new article on this topic, in particular on Geert Wilders and the recently released Islam-critical video "Fitna". Due to serious threats to the LiveLeak staff the video had to be removed for some time from the web site though it's now back online. Is there any further need to comment on this?