Bishop
says collapse of Christianity wrecking British society and Islam filling the
void
Daily Mail (UK) ^ | 28th May 2008 | Sean Poulter and Niall
Firth
The collapse
of Christianity has wrecked British society, a leading Church of England bishop
declared yesterday.
It has
destroyed family life and left the country defenceless
against the rise of radical Islam in a moral and spiritual vacuum.
In a
lacerating attack on liberal values, the Right Reverend Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, said the country was
mired in a doctrine of 'endless self-indulgence' that had brought an explosion
in public violence and binge-drinking.
In a blow to Gordon Brown, he mocked the 'scramblings and scratchings' of
politicians who try to cast new British values such as respect and tolerance.
The
Pakistani-born bishop dated the downfall of Christianity from the 'social and
sexual revolution' of the 1960s. (We see that
the media that is print, radio, television and film was the engine that went to
war against Christian conservative society and the family – This is fully
discussed in a book called “The Media” where they gloat over their
accomplishments and show charts and graphs of their accomplishments.)
He said
Church leaders had capitulated to Marxist revolutionary thinking and quoted an
academic who blames the loss of 'faith and piety among women' for the steep
decline in Christian worship. (He is citing
here “Liberation theology” that was rampant in mainline churches in the 1960’s)
Dr Nazir-Ali said the '
newfangled and insecurely founded' doctrine of multiculturalism has left
immigrant communities 'segregated, living parallel lives'.
Christian values of human dignity, equality and
freedom could be lost as the way is left open for the advance of brands of
Islam that do not respect Western values.
The Bishopric of Rochester is one of the ten most
powerful positions in the Church of England.
Dr Nazir-Ali's attack on
the decline of Christianity appears to put him in the opposite corner to the
Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and many of his fellow bishops.
But he holds
some views in common with the Church's other
widely-heard and popular prelate,
Over the past
six months, Dr Nazir-Ali has made a number of
criticisms of Islam and its influence.
Among them
have been charges about the spread of no-go areas for non-Muslims and worries
over the impact of new mosques.
Last weekend
he was one of just three bishops who backed a move in the Church's parliament,
the General Synod, to encourage the conversion of Muslims to Christianity. (Here we see the hoops that a denominational preacher must
leap through to suggest that their church should outreach to Muslims and seek to convert
them.)
His latest attack once again criticises
Dr Williams's backing for sharia
law, saying that 'recognising its jurisdiction in
public law is fraught with difficulties, precisely as it arises from a
different set of assumptions than the tradition of law here'.
Dr Nazir-Ali detailed
his arguments in an article in the newly-launched political magazine
Standpoint.
The bishop, himself an immigrant from
The bishop said 'something momentous' had happened
in the 1960s. He quoted historians who point to a cultural revolution in which
women ceased to uphold or pass on the Christian faith and to the role of
Marxist revolutionaries.
Dr Nazir-Ali pointed
with approval to a finding that 'instead of resisting this phenomenon, liberal theologians
and church leaders all but capitulated.
He said: 'It
has created the moral and spiritual vacuum in which we now find ourselves.' In
the place of Christianity there was nothing 'except perhaps endless
self-indulgence'.
The bishop said the consequences were 'the
destruction of the family because of the alleged parity of different forms of
life together, the loss of a father figure, especially for boys, because the
role of fathers is deemed otiose, the abuse of substances (including alcohol),
the loss of respect for the person leading to horrendous and mindless attacks,
the increasing communications gap between generations and social classes - the
list is very long.'
Another result, he said, was that immigrants had
been welcomed, not on the basis of
The bishop
warned that views not founded on Christianity would not produce the same values. 'Instead of Christian virtues of humility, service and
sacrifice, there may be honour, piety, the saving of face, etc'.
He questioned what resources were available for an
ideological battle against radical Islamism, saying 'the scramblings
and scratchings around of politicians for values
which would provide ammunition' were hardly adequate. Convert who crusaded
against the extremists
Born into a Roman Catholic family in
As a young man, he suffered rough treatment of the
kind regularly handed out to Christians in a country where failing to follow
the official religion can sometimes end in murder.
He moved to Cambridge to study theology and then
returned as a priest to Pakistan before being brought to London in the 1980s to
serve as an assistant to the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Robert Runcie.
He is one of the bishops who has
been called on by the Prince of Wales to give advice on Islam.
However, Dr Nazir-Ali
does not share the prince's enthusiasm for Islamic values. He has warned
Charles to give up his hope of being 'defender of faiths' because of the
incompatibility of different beliefs.
Dr Nazir-Ali has accused
Muslims of promoting double standards by looking for both 'victimhood
and domination'; he has called for powers for officialdom to remove veils from
Muslim women for security reasons; and he has warned repeatedly over the
dangers of extremism.
In particular he has called on Islamic leaders to
allow Muslims to abandon their beliefs and adopt other religions.
Dr Nazir-Ali has spoken
up for an estimated 3,000 Britons under threat of retaliation for giving up
their faith and he has condemned Islamic states that maintain the death penalty
for apostasy.
His
outspokenness has put him in the vanguard of opposition to hardline
Islamism and made him one of the highest-placed enemies of the gay rights
movement.
He angered the Archbishop of Canterbury by
threatening to boycott this year's Lambeth Conference
of Anglican bishops from around the world.
He has criticised civil partnerships and opposed the extension of
IVF treatment to single women and lesbians.
Dr Nazir-Ali has much in
common with the Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu.
Unlike him, however, he does not have a populist touch.
This may have contributed to his failure to win
the post of Archbishop of Canterbury, for which he was once considered a
leading candidate.
The 58-year-old bishop has now remained in