The mouse has roared. In his new book Reimagining Britain, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has said that Sharia should never become part of the British legal system because it is incompatible with our laws.
High levels of Muslim immigration, he says, have led many to challenge majority values, especially in family life. He wants Britain instead to uphold the values founded upon its own principles and Christian inheritance.
The Church of England upholding Christian values as preferable to those of another faith? There will surely be amazement in Heaven. It’s certainly a reversal of the position taken by the archbishop’s predecessor, Lord Williams, who said in 2008 that he backed the introduction of Sharia in Britain and argued that adopting some of its aspects seemed “unavoidable”.