Bearded Fool of the Day (an occasional feature)

Not every religious dude with a beard is a bearded savage. Some bearded religious persons are just stupid and misguided, and sometimes are not doing their followers or their own faith any favours.

Today’s offerings have an ecumenical twist.

In the Red corner Archbishop Rowan Williams for his far too welcoming comments on Sharia Law.

Dr Rowan Williams had clarified his comments that implied adopting aspects of Sharia in the UK was “unavoidable”.

I know this is an old story from 2008 but it helps to recall just how multilingual academic churchmen are sometimes missing any form of comptent critical thought or self confidence in their own institutions. I did notice that Dr Williams was praised by Gordon Brown which must be about as welcome as a pork chop at a barmitzvah.

On the eve of his retirement Dr Williams needs to be reminded of the perils of naivety, especially where aggressive ideologies are concerned.

In the Blue corner our second bearded fool comes from Israel and is Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the Chief Rabbi of theSephardi Jews in that country.

So desparate is he to keep his followers ignorant and ghettoised in a world where only sacred writings are learned, he railed aginst the evils of secular education and the outside world in general.

He “branded non-religious education and the civil justice system as “corrupting, evil forces.” “

What a fool, a religious leader who wants his followers to be dole bludgers. What a waste of all those people living in enforced ignorance on the orders of a religious semi-despot.