Sunday, January 6, 2008
It seems as if the entire Anglican Church is not quite as checked out upstairs as Rowan Williams. Michael Nazir-Ali, Bishop of Rochester, has written a strong piece for the Telegraph: Extremism flourished as UK lost Christianity
...On the one hand, the British were losing confidence in the Christian vision which underlay most of the achievements and values of the culture and, on the other, they sought to accommodate the newer arrivals on the basis of a novel philosophy of "multiculturalism".
This required that people should be facilitated in living as separate communities, continuing to communicate in their own languages and having minimum need for building healthy relationships with the majority.
Alongside these developments, there has been a worldwide resurgence of the ideology of Islamic extremism. One of the results of this has been to further alienate the young from the nation in which they were growing up and also to turn already separate communities into "no-go" areas where adherence to this ideology has become a mark of acceptability.
Those of a different faith or race may find it difficult to live or work there because of hostility to them. In many ways, this is but the other side of the coin to far-Right intimidation. Attempts have been made to impose an "Islamic" character on certain areas, for example, by insisting on artificial amplification for the Adhan, the call to prayer.
Such amplification was, of course, unknown throughout most of history and its use raises all sorts of questions about noise levels and whether non-Muslims wish to be told the creed of a particular faith five times a day on the loudspeaker...
The Telegraph has also printed a piece with reactions to the Bishop's op-ed: Bishop warns of no-go zones for non-Muslims
...The Muslim Council of Britain today described his comments as "frantic scaremongering", while William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, said the bishop had "probably put it too strongly".
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said the idea of no-go areas was "a gross caricature of reality"...
...His comments come as a poll of the General Synod - the Church's parliament - shows that its senior leaders, including bishops, also believe that Britain is being damaged by large-scale immigration.
Bishop Nazir-Ali, who was born in Pakistan, gives warning that attempts are being made to give Britain an increasingly Islamic character by introducing the call to prayer and wider use of sharia law, a legal system based on the Koran...
...Inayat Bunglawala, assistant secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "Bishop Nazir-Ali appears to be exercised by what he perceives as the decline in the influence of Christianity upon this country, but trying to frantically scaremonger about Islam and Muslims seems to us to be a rather unethical way of trying to reverse this.
"He talks about the rise of 'Islamic extremism' but fails to mention how some of the policies of our government and especially that of the United States in the Middle East over several decades now has clearly contributed to this phenomenon."
Just give us what we want, and we'll behave better. Wow. It's good to see a churchman in England speaking out, but it sounds a bit too little, too late. Who has more power? Bishop Nazir-Ali, or Inayat Bunglawala I wonder.
I don't see what all the outrage is about? This has been a known fact in the UK for a longtime, hence the white flight of many areas for many decades.
Furthermore, over the last five years examples of the hostility towards the black and white populations in the UK has long since been documented. Such as the Channel4 Documentary the Last White Kids (2003) by Shona Thompson. Another documentary by the Black activist Darcus Howe who also documented the same issues, but from the black viewpoint of the growing hostilties between Asians (Muslims) and the black community, to the point were he films his own assault by Asian youths. There are many more documentaries that have been done that have been shelved because the topic was considered to provocative-such as the grooming of white girls in the North of England for sex by muslim men. Although, two men were recently jailed for such a crime.
There are parts of London and other cities in the UK where it is not unheard of to be called a white bastard, white devil, or be called a whore if you are a women. Not to mention the experience of sexual harassment, intimidation and violence. Even the death of Kriss Donald all reflect the truth that Bishop Nazir-Ali spoke.
The only people who do not want to admit to this horrible truth that multiculturalism does not work are the politicians who do not have to experience it or live with it. I guess it is a case of hear no evil and see no evil.....