Archbishop: I was right to speak out

Dr Rowan Williams sparked a major row last week with a speech in which he said some form of sharia law for Muslims in Britain seemed unavoidable.

Addressing the General Synod today, he insisted: "I believe quite strongly that it is not inappropriate to address issues around perceived concerns of other religious communities and bringing them to better public focus."

But the Archbishop admitted that his intervention on the highly sensitive subject had been "clumsy". He told the Church of England's ruling body at Church House in Westminster that he had not been suggesting a "parallel jurisdiction" with sharia law running alongside the UK's legal system.

He said: "I must of course take responsibility for any unclarity in either that text or in the radio interview and for any misleading choice of words that has helped to cause distress or misunderstanding among the public at large and especially among my fellow Christians. It is Lent and one of the great penitential phrases of the psalms will be in all our minds, 'Who can tell how oft he offendeth, cleanse thou me from my secret fault'."

He stressed that the Church had a "burden and privilege" to speak up for all faith communities, adding: "I hope we can use it well - however clumsily it may have been deployed in this instance."

He said: "We are not talking about parallel jurisdictions; and I tried to make clear that there could be no 'blank cheques' in this regard in particular as regards some of the sensitive questions about the status and liberties of women.

"The law of the land still guarantees for all the basic components of human dignity." He defended his right to raise issues such as sharia law coming into force in the UK but emphasised that if there was a move in that direction there would be "plenty of work still to be done, with the greatest care, on what would and would not be possible and appropriate areas for such cooperation".

He added: "But I believe quite strongly that it is not inappropriate for a pastor of the Church of England to address issues around the perceived concerns of other religious communities and to try to bring them into better public focus."

Canon Chris Sugden of the Anglican Mainstream organisation said that a full apology was the only response the Archbishop should give.

He added: "He has caused great difficulties for our colleagues, especially in Nigeria, especially in countries where there is significant Muslim pressure for sharia to come in."

Earlier, Gordon Brown praised the "great integrity" of the Archbishop. No 10 said Mr Brown had phoned Dr Williams at the weekend to make clear that while the PM disagreed with any move towards sharia law, he had always respected the Archbishop's commitment to public service.

Mr Brown's spokesman said: "The Prime Minister believes the Archbishop is a man of great integrity and dedication to public and community service and understands the difficulty he is facing. The Archbishop has been clarifying and setting in a wider context the comments he has made and I'm sure he will continue to do so."

The spokesman said the two men had "a close relationship" and stayed in "close touch".

He added: "The Prime Minister is very clear that British laws must be based on British values and that religious law, while respecting other cultures, should be subservient to British criminal and civil law."

No10 also tried to distance itself from remarks by environment minister Phil Woolas, who said yesterday there was a problem with birth defects caused by Asian first-cousin marriages.

Mr Brown's spokesman said Mr Woolas had been speaking in his capacity as a constituency MP and added: "The Government's position is we believe these matters are best addressed locally, by local members of the community as well as by professional healthcare advisers."