Archbishop of Canterbury 'Islam should take responsibility' just like Christianity should
THE Archbishop of Canterbury has demanded faith leaders step up and counter the justification of committing terror attacks in the name of religion.
Reverend Justin Welby spoke in the aftermath of the London Bridge terror attack, which happened not even two weeks after the Manchester bombing.
He spoke against politicians saying "this is nothing to do with Islam" as he added: "I don't think it is getting us anywhere, just like saying Srebrenica had nothing to do with Christianity."
The Srebrenica massacre saw Bosnian Serb forces slaughtered some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in July 1995 amid the breakup of Yugoslavia.
It was later defined as an act of genocide with the intent to exterminate the Muslim Bosniak population.
From an outside perspective, one of the issues about dealing with Islam is that there is not much of a structure
Rev Welby went on to condemn "a lack of religious literacy" among some people who are tackling the terrorist threat.
He told Radio 4's Today Programme: "They often don't understand the very basic doctrines of the faith they're dealing with."
He added: "From an outside perspective, one of the issues about dealing with Islam is that there is not much of a structure.
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"There isn't a pope or a bishop that you can go to and say these are the leaders.
"There will always be particular groups which take views that are different from the mainstream but what is clear over the weekend is the extraordinary level of condemnation by every significant Muslim leader we know and every significant Muslim body we know."
He said throughout history religious scriptures have "been twisted and misused" to justify hates of violence, adding: "We have got to say that if something happens within our own faith tradition we need to take responsibility for countering that."
On Christianity, he said there had been "enormous heroism and beauty" but also "a dark side" in the past.