Archbishop to denounce terror law 

The Archbishop of Canterbury is to use his Christmas sermon to criticise the detention without trial of terror suspects in Britain and the US. 
Dr Rowan Williams is expected to say the policy could make even moderate British Muslims feel they are being targeted as part of the war on terror. 

The Christmas reference to another faith is a surprising departure. 

Dr Williams will also use the sermon to attack plans for a ban on religious symbols, including Muslim headscarves, in French schools. 


But it is his opposition to the imprisonment without trial of nine British Muslims in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and 14 men in Belmarsh jail, south London, that will attract most attention. 

Speaking to the Sunday Times newspaper ahead of what will be his first Christmas sermon as Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Williams says their plight was jeopardising the efforts of moderate Muslims to foster democracy and religious tolerance in places like Iraq. 


"If we want to persuade moderate Muslims to sign up to toleration and pluralism of the right kind, anything that gives the impression that we are targeting Muslims is problematic. 

"We have a lot of ground to make up." 

The Archbishop has made improving the dialogue between Christianity and Islam a priority during his first year as leader of the worldwide Anglican Church. 

He was among the most vehement critics of the war in Iraq. 

Dr Williams told the Sunday Times a three-day seminar of 30 Christians and Islamic scholars he had hosted in Qatar during the conflict had showed "you can have public disagreement and mutual respect". 

He is also set to use Wednesday's sermon to attack last week's decision by French President Jacques Chirac to back a ban on religious symbols in schools. 

He says it would be a "very provocative and very destructive" move. 

"There is no such thing as a neutral public space in which everybody has to put aside that which makes them distinctive." 


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk/3337771.stm

Published: 2003/12/21 03:39:23 GMT

© BBC MMIII

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