Fire in the Taj Mahal hotel

It was sad to see the fire sweeping through the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai today. I stayed there more than 10 years ago. It really is one of the world's great hotels.

I remember the large rooms overlooking the water front. When you opened the window you were met by a blast of fetid air, a mixture of salt water and the sweat of those in the streets below.

Inside was luxury and opulence but to step outside the doorway was to re-enter the reality of Mumbai with people sleeping and living on the pavement. Anywhere else it would be tempting to think that such contrasts would be a source of resentment but the people of Mumbai were incredibly tolerant. I suppose they had to be to live together in such numbers.

It is too early to know much about the perpetrators of the attacks but I hope - if they prove to be muslim - that it does not lead to the kind of anti-muslim riots that have erupted in Mumbai in the past.

Archbishop rings alarm bells

I wonder how many of those engaged in pillorying Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury for his remarks on sharia law in Britain have actually listened to his speech or read the text?

His argument is so dense and diffuse that it was bound to be interpreted in simple headlines as "Archbishop wants sharia law in the UK". The problem with such headlines is that for most people in the UK sharia law carries with it one meaning: a draconian system that advocates extreme punishments such as the stoning of women for adultery and the cutting off of the hands of thieves.

Extreme naivety

If Dr Williams is guilty of anything it is extreme naivety if he believed that his speech would create the conditions for a balanced debate on Islamic law in the UK. The visible changes wrought by Islam on so many British communities are creating real anxieties within those communities. Dr Williams should visit towns such as Dewsbury in Yorkshire, or Blackburn and Burnley in Lancashire, where multicultural policies have done little to unite cultures that are as divided as ever a full half century since Asians began settling in the UK.

If he thinks the imams within some of the more radical mosques are debating the merits of religious unity in their communities he is mistaken. There is a war going on and part of that war is being fought in our own backyard.

Two-systems, one country

The vast majority of British muslims want nothing to do with the kind of terrorism promoted by Al Qa'eda. On the other hand there is much broader sympathy for creating a community within a community which might operate to a different set of rules, principles and beliefs on more of a Hong Kong-style, one country, two-systems basis.

Those who have extended Islamic practices in the UK have taken advantage of British tolerance, underpinned by a strong vein of liberalism, that has overshadowed an equally embedded conservatism. Islamic conservatism - dominant in many of the former northern textile towns - however, has shown scant interest in assimilation.

Christian society

I can sympathise with those among Dr Williams' critics, who believe that creating further inroads for sharia law within the UK is the thin end of an increasingly divisive wedge in our society. Britain remains essentially a Christian Society even for those of us who have adopted more secular beliefs.

No I don't go to Church anymore but I feel comfortable with the sound of church bells in my parish. They help define the country I know and love. I want an Archbishop who is less in the thrall of the muezzin and keen to keep those church bells ringing.