question

It seems that everywhere I look someone is busy being outraged at something or other that the Archbishop of Canterbury said about Sharia in Britain. Can someone explain to me what the fuss is about? Nothing I’ve seen so far is nearly specific enough for me to find it particularly credible. And I haven’t been able to get my hands on an actual transcript yet. Anyway, given that fewer than one in a thousand who thought they did actually had a foggy idea what the Pope said in Regensburg, I’m inclined to doubt that the Archbishop said anything exciting. But, still, I’d like to know what the fuss is about. So can someone tell me what exactly he said that is supposed to be so outrageous?

Sydney

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to question

  1. fustianist says:

    Thanks for the link. If I have the history right here, then it’s not actually the speech that sparked the furor but rather one that responds to some of the criticisms of the initial speech. At any rate, it’s an interesting text and in some ways clearer than what I think is the original text (initially I couldn’t find a link to it that wasn’t broken, but I now have: http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/1575).

    And it looks like my suspicions were right. I think most of the people who are so outraged at his comments would have their eyes glaze over out of sheer boredom before they finished the third paragraph if they actually bothered to read the speech.

    Interestingly enough, my sense is that the most vehement denunciations have come from conservative commentators. This is interesting because it seems to me that the Archbishop’s proposal is actually fundamentally conservative in nature. He is, after all, targeting a monopoly of public space by a secular, individual rights-based discourse. Not to mention that he ends by claiming that theologians have a role in the public square.

    Sydney

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *