Against Islamic Apartheid

Against Islamic Apartheid

By Mark D. Tooley
FrontPageMagazine.com
January 21, 2008

When others in his church and nation are often blinded by multiculturalism and rigid political correctness, the Church of England's ethnically Pakistani Bishop of Rochester often speaks boldly. His recent column in The Daily Telegraph warning against encroaching self-segregation and even the growing practice of Islamic Sharia law within British Islamic communities has aroused the ire of some Muslim clerics in Britain.

"There has been a worldwide resurgence of the ideology of Islamic extremism," Nazir-Ali wrote. "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."

The Islamization of some parts of British cities has happened thanks to high immigration from Muslim countries, low birth-rates among the native British, and the growing secularization of once Christian British society, where only about ten percent or less are Christian church-goers. As Nazir-Ali noted: "In fewer than 50 years, Britain has changed from being a society with an acknowledged Christian basis to one which is increasingly described by politicians and the media as 'multifaith.'"

Britain has lost "confidence in the Christian vision which underlay most of the achievements and values of [its] culture, Nazir-Ali regretted. And the nation has sought to accommodate its Muslim immigrants with a multiculturalism that encouraged "separate communities" that had "minimum need for building healthy relationships with the majority." The bishops warnings drew reactions from some Muslim leaders. [...]

But Nazir-Ali warned that in some of Britain's self-segregated Islamic communities, "Those of a different faith or race may find it difficult to live or work there because of hostility to them and even the risk of violence." He described some efforts to impose an "Islamic" character on neighborhoods by electronically amplified broadcasting of Islamic calls to prayer. The bishop wondered whether non-Muslims "wish to be told the creed of a particular faith five times a day on the loudspeaker." [...]