Muslim scholar backs beleaguered archbishop

By Luke Baker

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's leading Islamic scholar believes Anglican leader Rowan Williams has been profoundly misunderstood in his comments on sharia, but fears he will try to "correct" himself solely to quell the furore.

The Archbishop of Canterbury sparked outrage last week when he suggested it was "unavoidable" that at some point in the future aspects of Islamic law would be introduced in Britain, home to around 1.8 million Muslims.

The government was quick to make clear that British law was supreme in the land, and tabloid newspapers launched vitriolic campaigns against Williams, the spiritual leader of the 77 million strong Anglican Church, calling on him to resign.

But Sheikh Suhaib Hasan, the secretary of the Islamic Sharia Council, a panel of Britain's top Islamic scholars who decide on hundreds of Muslim marriages and divorces each year, said Williams was being wrongly vilified and should explain himself.

"I have listened to his speech and I think people are so ignorant that they cannot understand what he was saying," Hasan, a Pakistan-born Muslim who studied jurisprudence in Saudi Arabia before coming to Britain 31 years ago, told Reuters.

"Because he's been so totally misunderstood, he should try to explain himself. He should not withdraw from his comments, that will just make it worse.

"If I believe something then I stand by it. The archbishop is the same. He should not disassociate himself from what he said if he thinks it's true."

Williams, who has not spoken publicly since he made his comments, is expected to address the issue when he opens a meeting of the Church of England's General Synod on Monday.