Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams' proposal to introduce aspects of Shariah law inside Britain inflamed passions Friday in a country already anxious about immigration and terror plots.

Williams' plan was rejected by politicians, denounced by the press, and sparked such an adverse reaction that even some Muslim groups who had embraced the concept said the backlash wasn't worth it.

In his proposal, made during a British Broadcasting Corp. radio interview and a subsequent lecture, Williams did not explicitly state how Shariah law should be integrated within the existing British legal system. But he called its introduction inevitable.

Britain's tabloid newspapers reacted with fury, publishing pictures of people being beheaded under Shariah law and also showing the carnage after Islamic suicide bombers attacked London's transport system in 2005.

In an editorial, The Sun newspaper called Williams "a dangerous threat to our nation" and said Muslim terrorists would "see his foolish ramblings as a sign that our resolve against extremism is weakening."

The lurid headlines and photographs prompted some British Muslim groups to soften their initial support for Williams' plans and to complain about "Islamophobia" making British Muslims feel unwelcome in their homeland.

"The reaction has escalated into hysteria," said Catherine Heseltine, a spokeswoman with the Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK. "People hear the word Shariah and have an emotive conjuring of Taliban beheadings. It's seen as threatening Muslim outsiders coming in and imposing something on Britain."

In reality, she said, the changes Williams is advocating actually aren't a high priority to British Muslims. For most Muslims here, she said, Shariah law deals primarily with questions of how Halal meat should be prepared and how marriages should be conducted.

The questions involved are minor, she said. For example, she said, a couple that marries in a Church of England ceremony is recognized as legally married, while a couple that marries in an Islamic ceremony presided over by an imam has to go to a public records office to have their union certified.

"Growing Muslim communities have thrived in Britain for many years without any introduction of Shariah law," she said. "We're British citizens, we respect British laws, and we want people to understand they shouldn't be concerned about this."

Shariah is a wide-ranging Islamic code of conduct that has evolved over the centuries and is subject to differing interpretations in various countries. It deals with many aspects of daily life, including dress and dietary restrictions, and also codifies how to punish serious offenses.

The code imposes some restrictions on banking practices and in fact some British banks have introduced Shariah-compliant programs for certain types of transactions.

There are already some Shariah councils operating in Britain for Muslims who agree to abide by their rulings, but these are unofficial bodies not recognized by British law.

Mohammed Shafiq, director of the Ramadhan Foundation, said the reaction in the British press _ which focused on extreme forms of Shariah that are used in some countries _ overshadowed any positive results from Williams' proposal.

"They are trying to demonize Islam," he said. "They are attacking Islam when we should be having a debate with respect and tolerance."

The response to his plan, which cited marriage law and financial disputes as arenas that could be resolved by Shariah practices, has been almost uniformly negative.

"It seems to be a particularly silly thing to have said and to have created another opportunity for Muslim-baiters in the tabloids to keep broadcasting anti-Muslim propaganda," said author William Dalrymple, who has written extensively about religious tensions in the Middle East.

Anthony O'Mahony, research director at Heythrop College in London, said the introduction of even a limited form of Shariah would raise difficult legal issues because it would establish separate legal systems inside Britain.

"He's opening up much bigger issues," O'Mahony said. "It establishes multiple jurisdictions. Any prudent lawyer would say so. We've had modern state systems with unitary laws for many years."

He said that Williams may be thinking of a system like the one in use in Israel, where there is a "well developed" Islamic court system that gives Israeli Arabs access to Shariah law for some conflict resolution.

"In Israel, the overarching legal code takes dominance with some of it devolved to local groups," he said. "In Europe, you have spent a few hundred years moving toward a unitary system with the same rights for everyone, so to move to this is rather a big political question."