Deep divisions over the future of Islam in Australia have emerged after calls for the adoption of sharia law in submissions to a federal parliamentary inquiry into multiculturalism.
Citing existing Government support for Islamic banking and laws governing halal meat – and backing from the Archbishop of Canterbury – Muslim organisations have urged recognition of the religious law to boost integration.
But Attorney-General Robert McClelland has rejected the move, repeating the stand taken earlier by both John Howard’s former Coalition Administration and the present Labor Government.