The Archbishop Has Stepped into a Political and Intellectual Minefield

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The Archbishop of Canterbury's speech this week on the relationship between civil and religious law is a hopeless intellectual muddle. Dr Rowan Williams argues that the UK must "face up to the fact" that some citizens do not relate to the British legal system and that "the law needs to takes some account of that". One of his suggestions is "a constructive accommodation with some aspects of Muslim law".

The glaring problem with such an "accommodation" is that only Muslims would be bound by sharia. In a liberal and open society all citizens must be equal before the laws of the nation. There can be no laws which apply only to certain religious or …