Monday, January 7, 2008

Muslim Organizations Call For The Resignation of Bishop Ali-Nazr After His Remarks on Muslim No-Go Areas

Comments made by Britain's Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, about the existance of Muslim areas in Britain that are no-go areas have set off a firestorm in Britain. At least one prominent Muslim leader, Manzoor Moghal, chairman of the Muslim Forum in Britain, has confirmed the Bishops assertions. Writing in the Daily Mail, Moghal expressed his horror at the rise of radical Islam in Britain's Muslim population, and, in a stinging indictment, expressed his judgment that the U.K. socialist's policy of "multiculturalism has backfired spectacularly." Their beliefs would seem supported by a recent article in the Times, discussing how multiculturalist policies have fanned the flames of radicalism in Britain to the point where the majority strain of Deobandi Islam now present in Britain is more radical and militant than that to be found in Pakistan where it forms the core of the Taliban ideology. Just as a reminder of what that means, the Taliban are the fellows in the picture at the left, executing a burkah clad mother in Kabul's soccer stadium a few years ago.

Not surprisingly, today, we have various Muslim organizations in Britain calling for Bishop Nazir-Ali's resignation. And also not surprisingly, we have a supposedly conservative Tory party member coming down on the side of the Islamists. This today in the Telegraph:

Religious groups have demanded the resignation of the Bishop of Rochester after he claimed that Islamic radicals had turned parts of Britain into "no-go" areas for non-Muslims.

The Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali wrote in The Sunday Telegraph that fundamentalism had made some communities hostile to Christians and those from other faiths.

But Mohammed Shafiq, from the Ramadhan Foundation, said: "Mr Nazir-Ali is promoting hatred towards Muslims and should resign."

Ajmal Masroor, of the Islamic Society of Great Britain, said: "It's a distortion of reality. Our communities are far more integrated than they were 10 years ago.

"If the Church of England had an iota of fairness they would take serious action."

But senior figures from the Church of England have backed the Bishop of Rochester's remarks about faith and said Christians in predominantly Muslim areas could feel isolated and nervous about how to express their belief.

The Bishop of Burnley, the Rt Rev John Goddard, said his colleague had raised serious questions about the role of faith, race and culture in British society.

The Bishop of Blackburn, the Rt Rev Nicholas Reade, said it was becoming difficult for Christians to share their faith in areas where there was a high proportion of other faiths.

William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, said: "I don't think that view is factually correct. I'm not sure where these no-go areas are, I don't recognise that description."

But Bishop Goddard said that Christians, who are outnumbered in many parts of Blackburn, were frightened that their ideas could be misinterpreted by other faiths and seen as a form of oppression.

. . . Bishop Goddard said Christians in northern towns such as Blackburn and Burnley, where 95 per cent of the Asian population is Muslim, could find life difficult.

"I think they sometimes feel as though they are strangers," he said. "It is a question of how people of different beliefs work together. Of course, the vast majority of Muslims are peace loving."

Endorsing Bishop Nazir-Ali's comments, he said: "Bishop Michael has raised these issues as a start of a debate which has serious connotations.

"The seriousness is how do you enable people of different cultures, races and faiths to live together as one nation, that seems to be at the back of what he is saying." . . .

Read the article here. One wonders if the good Bishop might not receive a visit from the U.K.'s police, as has Lionheart for the audacity to question Islam in the UK.

As to the blanket statement by former Tory party leader and now shadow Foregin Secretary, William Hague, that he refuses to believe the Bishop's allegations, that goes to the heart of the rot in Britain today. The Tories sold their soul and have not been a conservative party since they got rid of Attila the Hen, Margert Thatcher - Britain's most successful PM since Churchill - because she opposed Britain's integration into the EU. Today, under the leadership of the boy wonder, David Cameron, the Tories are merely a lite version of the Labour Party. As evidenced by Mr. Hague, they are courting the Muslim vote irrespective of reality, just as Labour has done. They recently forced the resignation of one of their prospective candidates for office becasue of his "Enoch Powell" comments on how immigration is threatening Britain. And the Tories are playing games, refusing to state unequivocably that they hold a referendum on the transfer of British sovereignty to the EU once accomplished by the odious Gordon Brown. It is utterly horrifying. Britain cannot look for salvation today to the party of Churchill.

Britain's Independent Party seems to be picking up the mantle of conservatism, but you rarely hear of them. They get no play in the press because of what appears to be institutionalized bias. We are witnessing a great nation committing national suicide. My only thought is God save the Queen - because it would seem at this stage that her only hope is divine intervention.

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