THE SUNDAY TIMES: Whatever your views about Michael Nazir-Ali, Bishop of Rochester, he is hard to ignore. After his announcement this weekend that he is to retire early, the Church of England will be the poorer for it. The inference is that he felt stifled and decided that he could do more worthwhile work elsewhere, mostly outside Britain. Sadly, he is probably right.
Born in Karachi to parents who converted to Christianity from Islam, the first non-white diocesan bishop in Britain emerged as an outspoken critic of multiculturalism. Nobody, given his background and race, was better placed to do so. More than his Anglican colleagues, he knew about fighting for your faith. His criticisms were well made. Immigrants, he said, needed to do more to integrate into British life. He warned last year that Islamic extremism had turned “already separate communities into ‘no-go’ areas”. For this he received death threats and required police protection.
He has lamented “the long withdrawing roar of the sea of faith . . . nurses cannot pray, the creed cannot be recited at Christian services for fear of offending non-believers”. He warned of “the advent of a doctrinaire multi-faithism”, in which the established church was in retreat and in which radical Islam had filled the void. His views on Muslims were said to have ruled him out of succeeding George Carey as Archbishop of Canterbury.
Bishop Nazir-Ali spoke out against the soggy “anything goes” political correctness that characterises the modern Church of England. Sometimes his conservative views got him into trouble. Nine years ago he caused a flurry by saying that having children was “not an optional extra” for married couples. >>> | Sunday, March 29, 2009
