Dear Editor, The Archbishop of Canterbury made a monumental blunder last week, publicly stating that Muslim Sharia law should be embodied within the British legal system.
Is it not time that his eminence was advised to keep his mouth shut on political matters?
The job of the gas and gaiters brigade is to preach the scriptures, albeit to an ever diminishing flock, and not to make statements of a political nature in public. The church has caused more trouble throughout the world than Marxism ever did, especially in Africa, with the Archbishop being no exception here; his nonsensical outburst should be confined to the rubbish bin.
His assertions amount to Muslims being allowed to live in Britain as a "nation within a nation", and this is totally unacceptable. There must be no doubt in anyone's mind that people living here, be they Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jew, Sikh or any other, can only be subject to British law - there can be nothing else, and there will be no appeal against it.
What the Archbishop should be doing is looking into his own position as leader of the Church of England, the importance of which is steadily diminishing.
It was recently revealed that with the arrival into Britain of over one million Eastern European immigrants, most of whom are practising Catholics, the C of E religion is now second to RC in the matter of religious worship. The head of the largest practised religion in Britain is now the Pope of Rome and not the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Church of England Synod is meeting this week, and with some members calling for the Archbishop's resignation, they could be forgiven for asking: "Can no one rid us of this meddlesome priest?"
MICK COLE, Kenilworth
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* Working together rather than fighting
Dear Editor, It is no wonder the smart suits in London think seriously before giving us a few bob to rebuild New Street Station as a cattle market. No sooner have we got the money than everyone is arguing about who managed to prize the cheque out of Alistair Darling's sweaty mitt.
If we all spent more time telling everyone that we all love each other and are prepared to work together to achieve a common goal, we would do much better than by having hundreds of different pressure groups/factions, all telling everyone it will never work here, we would be doing a lot better at the big payout chute, which for some reason seems to be aimed at Manchester, etc, where everyone seems to at least keep quiet if they don't agree with the other factions!
ANTHONY TAYLOR, Harborne
