Michael Nazir-Ali's "no go" areas

The Bishop of Rochester has remarkably claimed that there are no-go areas for non-Muslims in Britain. Many have already pointed out that this is absurd and that it requires him to provide evidence.

In Michael Nazir-Ali's Sunday Telegraph article, the passage in question contains complaints about the Islamic call to prayer being broadcast around the country's towns and cities. This is of course bunkum. There has been some controversy lately in Oxford about this (I don't know much about the specifics), but this is not vexing people the length and breadth of the nation.

His article claims that multiculturalism is a "mish mash". In reality, it is his article that fits that description. At one point it's about Muslims, then it's about the decline in Christianity. We can only assume he feels the two things are linked.

That's why some of the Muslims commenting on the story today have accused him of blaming Muslims for the decline of Christianity in this country. He's not going to fill out any more churches with this kind of hate-filled rhetoric, apart from far-right thugs who are lapping this up. "No go areas"? What does a Muslim look like for this to be enforced?

His fear that the church is in the process of being disestablished is not down to lobbying from Muslims. It's certainly not the fault of shariah-compliant banking which also warrants a mention from the venerable and vulnerable bishop.

Nazir-Ali has of course reason to speak about Christian-Islamic issues. His own family has a Muslim background, while his father converted to Christianity. It's reported that Nazir-Ali's life was put in danger in Pakistan, which is the reason we find the bishop in this country.

Clearly he holds no brief for Islam because of his treatment in Pakistan. It seems though that he wants to take away the freedoms we enjoy here to implement the same monoculturalism we see in Pakistan, but this time with the church doing the beating.

UPDATE: More with Inayat Bunglawala, who highlights the criticism of Nazir-Ali from across the political spectrum, with the notable exception of the Labour government. He also reminds us that Nazir-Ali backed the war on Iraq, and describes how many Muslims in this country are getting the call to prayer in their houses.

UPADTE 2: Excellent article at Salaam, which reveals amongst other things that Nazir-Ali is on the Advisory Council of Douglas Murray's odious neocon outfit the Centre for Social Cohesion. Also that people like Tony Blair didn't openly talk about their faith because they'd be perceived as "nutters", not because of Muslims.

Comments

[Yunus]

Nazir-Ali has actually spilled quite a lot of ink over Muslims, having written a number of books on the 'Islam' question. Anyone looking for a PhD thesis with Islamophobia as a theme? This Bish's body of work is begging to be deconstructed!!

[dawood]

Throughout my time in the UK before moving to Australia, I have never once heard the call to prayer outside. At most, one may have heard it a little as an echo from inside the mosque whilst walking past but that's it. Unless these "no-go areas" are different from where I have spent time (which include all the "hot spots" usually mentioned), then I have no idea what the Bishop is talking about.

[Random Guy]

Theres nothing like galvanising members of a faith by causing an irrational fear of another. Sweeping generalisations and blanket statements go a long way to speeding up a slow news day and wasting our time with yet another manufactured "Muslim Outrage". I suggest we all club together and send N-A an invite to the next Eid Mela. Also, add some flowers. Maybe the man needs to loosen up a little.

[Stewart McDonald]

I seen in the Daily Mail yesterday that there was a ridiculous poll for the readers that asked them if they believed that there were no-go areas for non-muslims in the UK and the figure that believe this is the case was at a staggering 73% of Daily Mail readers. What a load of tripe!

[joe90]

On the Bish talking bosh,
try some RandomPottins -
This Bishop speaks Bosh; Disestablish the Church!
07 Jan 2007

RP, being brought up a G-d fearing English Jewish gentleman can certainly relate to being intimidated, especially by the sound of Christian church bells calling the faithful to mass on Sundays, and other activities typical of 'multi-cultural no-go areas' etc

Wasn't it The Daily Hate Mail
who claimed there were no-go areas for non-Jews in Britian, I'm sure, in the 1930s?
Hence the reason the British Union of Fascists insisted on marching through largely Jewish areas of London - to stand up to Jewish extremism in its own stronghold (no don't laugh - Daily Mail readers beleive this racist tosh and always have).

I look forward to many such BNP marches in the future, sponsored by Church of England clergy no doubt, and for the same reasons - to confront the extremists in their own strongholds etc etc blah blah...

Not much has changed in the intervening period at The Daily Heil, not the owners or their support for British and Western fascism - only the targets of their race-hate campaigns seem to be Muslim these days rather than Jewish.

Mail Watch blog
has lots of scurrillious comments, after all, there isn't anything serious you can say about the western corporate media in general, except it's utter rubbish.

all the best

ps
I've just came across this blog -
Forgotten Journalist: A Voice for the Unheard Muslim
- and thought people might be interested in giving it a quick shuftie.

pps
Here is the late great Paul Foot at his best, on American and British fascist newspaper owners, but also with some useful pointers to the way western liberal democracy is being attacked from the inside by the very same people who also claim to be its biggest supporters and champions -
Silencing the Nazi threat
SOCIALIST REVIEW
Issue 175
Published May 1994

"Those rulers are not committed to democracy. Nor are their media. In the 1930s large hunks of the media championed the fascists who were determined to destroy it. In the United States the huge combine of papers run by William Randolph Hearst campaigned enthusiastically for fascism. So did the Rothermere press in Britain. In August 1938, just after Mussolini had promulgated his own special law banning Jews from public office, Ward Price, special correspondent of the Daily Mail, wrote:

'Mussolini is an Elizabethan. Allowing for the altered conditions, he stands to modern Italy as Raleigh and Drake did in Queen Elizabeth's day. He incarnates the new spirit which has possessed his nation, and between the Italy of the early 20th century and the England of the early 17th there is much spiritual resemblance--the same internal national pride, the same unbounded optimism, the same fierce sense of opening opportunity, the same quick sensitive temper, the same tendency to recklessness, the same full-blooded heat of a nation that feels its youth and strength.' "

[Abu Sinan]

I have been in Muslim areas of the UK before and after I converted to Islam, I never once heard the Adhan broadcasted from a mosque. I lived in the UK for three years.

The only place I have heard the Adhan broadcasted was in Muslim countries. But this is besides the point, should we as Muslims start complaining about church bells?

[joe90]

Wasn't it The Daily Hate Mail
who claimed there were no-go areas for non-Jews in Britian, I'm sure, in the 1930s?
Hence the reason the British Union of Fascists insisted on marching through largely Jewish areas of London - to stand up to Jewish extremism in its own stronghold (no don't laugh - Daily Mail readers believe this racist tosh and always have).

I look forward to many such BNP marches in the future, sponsored by Church of England clergy no doubt, and for the same reasons - to confront the extremists in their own strongholds etc etc blah blah...

Mail Watch blog
has lots of scurrillious comments, after all, there isn't anything serious you can say about the western corporate media in general, except it's utter rubbish.

Here is the late great Paul Foot at his best, on American and British fascist newspaper owners, but also with some useful pointers to the way western liberal democracy is being attacked from the inside by the very same people who also claim to be its biggest supporters and champions -
Silencing the Nazi threat
SOCIALIST REVIEW
Issue 175
Published May 1994

"Those rulers are not committed to democracy. Nor are their media. In the 1930s large hunks of the media championed the fascists who were determined to destroy it. In the United States the huge combine of papers run by William Randolph Hearst campaigned enthusiastically for fascism. So did the Rothermere press in Britain. In August 1938, just after Mussolini had promulgated his own special law banning Jews from public office, Ward Price, special correspondent of the Daily Mail, wrote:

'Mussolini is an Elizabethan. Allowing for the altered conditions, he stands to modern Italy as Raleigh and Drake did in Queen Elizabeth's day. He incarnates the new spirit which has possessed his nation, and between the Italy of the early 20th century and the England of the early 17th there is much spiritual resemblance--the same internal national pride, the same unbounded optimism, the same fierce sense of opening opportunity, the same quick sensitive temper, the same tendency to recklessness, the same full-blooded heat of a nation that feels its youth and strength.' "

I see from Islamophobia Watch that even Kelvin MacKenzie (one of Rupert Murdoch's more famous British bigoted, intolerant, right-wing class warrior fascist executives) is now claiming he's a liberal in order to justify his public anti-Muslim racism.

all the best!

ps
Just to let the RUT blogger know that I am having some of my comments treated as spam and blocked - maybe they have too many links in them etc
Not that I'm bothered or anything - I just like to help my fave bloggers if anything seems awry with their good work!