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Justin Welby also claimed that British law has “underlying values and assumptions” that come from a clearly Christian tradition. Archbishop Welby set out his reasons why sharia should not win official status in Britain in his book, called ’Reimagining Britain’. He said: “Sharia law is not just about punishments. “It is something of immense sophistication, but it comes from a very different background of jurisprudence to the one from which British law has developed over the past 500 years.”

GETTY Archbishop Welby set out his reasons why sharia shouldn't win official status in Britain in his book

His comments have come after the release of a Home Office report earlier this month that said all couples marrying in mosques should also have to go through a legally-binding civil marriage ceremony to protect wives from injustices under sharia. In his book, the Archbishop claimed the right of people to choose their own husband or wife, and the need for monogamous relationships was challenged by some of the British muslim population. The Archbishop said: “There has been and remains a demand for the introduction of those aspects of sharia law that affect family and inheritance. “The problem is reimagining Britain through values applied in action can only work where the narrative of the country is coherent and embracing.

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“Sharia, which has a powerful and ancient cultural narrative of its own, deeply embedded in a system of faith and understanding of God, and thus especially powerful in forming identity, cannot become part of another narrative. “Accepting it in part implies accepting its values around the nature of the human person, attitudes to outsiders, the revelation of God, and a basis for life in law, rather than grace, the formative word of Christian culture. “They face enormous pressures and need one legal basis of oversight and one philosophical foundation of understanding. “For these reasons, I am especially sympathetic towards those Islamic groups that do not seek the application of sharia law into the family and inheritance law of this country.”