Cameron and polygamy

The furore caused by the Archbishop of Canterbury’s widely (mis)quoted comments on sharia law dominated the first in a series of RSA lunchtime events yesterday, held in conjunction with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

David Cameron gave the keynote speech, arguing, much as David Green does in this month’s issue, that accommodating sharia law in Britain (to any greater extent than it already is) would institute a “legal apartheid” —only reinforcing the “cultural apartheid” which already exists in parts of the country. Invoking testimonies from recent visits to Bradford and Derby, he claimed the “state multiculturalism experiment” has failed: it has resulted in the alienation of minority communities, and reinforced difference where there should be consensus. What we need instead, he said, is a more robust sense of shared national identity.

Despite his claim that such an idea comes “naturally” to Conservatives, there is of course virtually no distinction between the main political parties on this issue. Cameron himself praised David Blunkett’s introduction of citizenship ceremonies, and nearly all the points made in his speech echoed the noises that Labour policy wonks have been making for quite some time.

Indeed, there seemed to be more (polite) distance on the issues discussed between the members of the EHRC delegation than between the line taken by Labour and the Conservatives. The event was chaired by the EHRC’s new communications director, Kamal Ahmed, and led by Trevor Phillips, and the main feature of the discussion was a rather timid disagreement about architecture. Cameron (borrowing chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’s metaphor), argued that Britain should not be like a hotel, as it is now, but a “house we build together”. Ziaddin Sardar took exception to the analogy, and proposed instead a “garden” – one that is not owned by anyone, and is able to grow organically, in any direction.

But in the end it was clear that everyone did at least agree on one matter: none knew what the Archbishop meant to say in his speech, nor in his subsequent “clarifications.”

In fact, the only real frisson worth mentioning came from the Conservatives’ own ranks, when, in the question and answer session, Cameron appeared to misspeak himself and come our in favour of polygamy—causing panic among the blue-rinse delegation in the audience. He quickly corrected himself.

What should have caused much more concern, however, was when the Tory leader argued we have “much to learn” about citizenship ideals from the America. The US is a country that is still deeply culturally segregated, and where the “value” of patriotism has been so deeply inculcated in its citizens that they dutifully re-elected their Commander-in-Chief, even after it was obvious he had led them into a disastrous war.

Then again, we British did the same, and we don’t even have the excuse that we grew up to pledging allegiance to our flag every morning.