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The Professors World Peace Academy (PWPA)was founded to support the academic community’s role in the pursuit of world peace. PWPA publishes books, the International Journal on World Peace, organizes conferences, and is a network of academics from around the world. It was founded in Korea in 1973 and presently has chapters in over 100 countries. It was very active in the UK in the 1980s convening a major congress entitled 'Liberal Democratic Societies: Their Present State and Future Prospects' in 1989. We wish to revive the British branch in the UK, named The British Academy for World Peace as there are a number of issues that could benefit from its cross-disciplinary and inter-religious approach.
Rev Dr Marcus Braybrooke is my mentor and my elder in the interfaith field. I have followed in his footsteps in the interfaith movement. I have been involved in interfaith since 1973. It is a credit to the Universal Peace Federation for bringing us all on the same platform. This debate has been provoked by the Archbishop of Canterbury's speech on the 8th of March. He said that Shariah law is unavoidable and that is the most controversial point in the speech. Muslims are asking for this and the Archbishop of Canterbury was seen as becoming the spokesman for the Muslims in this country. He is advocating Shariah law which means chopping the hands and cutting off heads!
Shari`ah literary means mode and path. However, religiously the term "Shari`ah" is used for the laws of Islam. The word Shari`ah in its various derivative forms is found in five different places in the Holy Qur'an.
Shari`ah is the set of rules derived from 1) the Holy Qur'an which Muslims believe is the word God revealed to Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) over 23 years, ending in 632 CE, 2) the authentic traditions (Sunnah) of the Prophet (peace be upon him) or example of the Prophet Muhammad, whom Muslims believe was divinely guided and 3) the scholarly opinions (Ijtehad) based on the Holy Qur'an and Sunnah. All Islamic teachings can be divided into two main parts: a) those that relate to the belief-structure of Islam, and b) those that relate to the practical aspects of human life. The former is known as Al-Hikmah (or the philosophy) of Islam and the latter is termed as Al-Shari`ah of Islam. The shari`ah deals with the ideology and faith; behaviour and manners; and practical daily matters e.g all aspects of human life. "To each among you, we have prescribed a law and a clear way". (The Holy Qur 'an 5:48). Shari`ah is a human interpretation of the sacred text of the Holy Qur'an and Sunnah.