Peter Hitchens: Our Laws, Customs, Traditions, Language, Music, Architecture, Diet etc. based upon Christianity?

By Paul Salahuddin Armstrong

I was just watching the BBC’s Sunday Morning Live (11.09.2011). I didn’t realise the depth of ignorance of Peter Hitchens. For a journalist as renowned as himself to be so incredibly unacquainted with reality is shocking! The man is under a delusion that we are somehow still living in a Christian society; I think many Christians themselves would disagree with him on this point. Without a shadow of a doubt, Christianity has left an indelible mark on the character, culture and customs of this nation. However, how many people go to church now? How many people with Christian ancestors really give Christianity any real consideration today?

Anyone acquainted with British society at the beginning of the 21st Century and a sense of rationality and fair interpretation, would realise that large numbers of indigenous British people themselves have moved away from Christianity, instead adopting Buddhism, Islam, Universal Sufism, Wicca, Hinduism, Sikhism or abandoning religion altogether and becoming Atheists, and they include such internationally renowned British scholars like Professor Richard Dawkins and the late Sir Arthur C. Clarke.

Angela Epstein and Peter Hitchens mentioned something about Muslims being opposed to people celebrating Christmas, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Only a very tiny minority of Muslims living in this country hold such extremist views; whether they celebrate Christmas themselves or not, the vast majority of Muslims have no issue with Christmas. I have never encountered a Muslim campaign to ban Christmas – the very idea is itself quite absurd!

In his polemic, Peter Hitchens said, “I would not want this country to be a Muslim country because I would not want it to be subject to Shariah Law, I don’t like the Muslim attitude towards women, I don’t like generally the consequences of Islam in politics, I have disagreements with Islam, which are fundamentally Christian disagreements with Islam… Let me just make a point as to why this should remain a Christian country, our laws, customs, traditions, language, music, architecture, diet, everything you care to name, these are all based upon Christianity. If Muslims want to live here, I’m very happy for them to do so, I regard them as allies, actually in the battle against the awful moral decline that we face, but they have to accept that this is fundamentally a Christian country, and integrate into it as such.”

Incredible, I guess Hitchens is living in the clouds! Firstly, who is suggesting this becomes a Muslim country (whatever one of those is)? With only 2 million Muslims in a overall population of around 62 million, I doubt very much that this is going to become a Muslim country any time soon! Where is this crazy myth originating that Britain will become a Muslim country anyway? Even most countries with mainly Muslim populations are not governed by the medieval “Shariah” laws to which I assume Hitchens is referring… Over time, national laws change and develop, it would be genuinely impracticable to govern any contemporary state according to a literal reading of any medieval codex of laws, whether that be Canon Law or of the Shariah variety. Too much has changed in our society for such primitive legislation to be useful today.

Before I continue any further, I’d like to clarify a few misconceptions about Shariah. The word itself is Arabic and refers to a road, path or way. Like it’s English equivalents, it’s meaning varies depending upon context and in the religious context, in Islam it’s applied to the concept of laws both religious and secular. Shariah in this context is not fixed, while certain key principles are timeless, the interpretation varies according to time and place. In much the same way as any codex of laws will develop over time. Today, we have laws which apply to our modern transport networks, airspace, radio frequency bandwidths etc. New laws and fresh interpretations of older laws are required to deal with changes in our society. Thus, my point is that even if Shariah were to be implemented in a modern state, it would be rather different to the older interpretations we read about in the history books and centuries old books on religious law.

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