First, there was this article in the Sunday Times Bishop attacks ‘victim’ Muslims. Then there was another article which the Daily Mail didn’t put on their website but which Anglican Mainstream has since published: Nazir-Ali speaks on the moral vacuum in Britain, Prince Charles and Islam.
Fair enough. Its true that the veil isnt wholesale mandatory in most Islamic countries. I think its reasonable to ask to allow it and to ask for it to be removed.
Michael Nazir[-Ali]’s comments in the summer were really spot on.
Dave, here and in another comment I have corrected the bishop’s surname.
Simon,
Thank you
As I remember Pakistan’s “return to Islam” was inspired by those who resented the “secularist” agenda that had brought new freedoms to the people there.
I am not quite sure how the argument runs from there …….. perhaps I would have asked the bishop different questions.
The analysis of how British mosques have changed over the years is also interesting.
It seems they were once peaceful places where people learned Arabic and the Koran and then fundamentalists from abroad suddenly changed their agenda.
The Church of England should take a stern warning from this.
I am all for Christian fundamentalists from outside in the CofE, lets have some Mother Theresas and Billy Grahams.
Pity there seems to have been an attempted takeover from fundamentalists here!
I tend to think Nazir-Ali speaks with the rather typical voice of the convert – he appears to have something of a siege mentality
“I am all for Christian fundamentalists from outside in the CofE, lets have some Mother Theresa”
Umm, I think the late saint might not entirely enjoy a ‘fundamentalist’ tag…. Obediently traditional RC, her attitude to Authority and Scripture wouldn’t have commended itself to Reform, would it?
Personally I’d settle for a few more Michael Ramseys (fd. 14 Nov)
>It seems they were once peaceful places where people learned Arabic and the Koran and then fundamentalists from abroad suddenly changed their agenda. The Church of England should take a stern warning from this.< Quite: especially Wahabi Islam from Saudi Arabia and impact on Pakistani Madrassas. One can imagine the intention of abroad, and approaches intending to radicalise (in the theological-political sense) Christians. Entryism, it is called. It can come from the south in Anglicanism, or the north in some Protestantism. For outsiders it is a private grief of conflicts of believing and communion, but should any of these entryists… Read more »
The more I scan this piece by Dominic Lawson – the poorer it reads. It begins with the claim that Nazir-Ali was a contender for Canterbury and implies his chances were destroyed by a liberal plot of lies. As I recall, Nazir-Ali did think he was a contender and (unusually and uniquely) mounted something akin to a campaign – but I hear he was never actually in the running. I vaguely remember a couple of un-attributed stories about his age etc appeared in a few columns – but I would be interested to know if there was anything like a… Read more »
There’s also a question over just how traditional Mother Teresa actually was,
She was certainly a universalist and believed that all religions lead to God, and that all should follow their own faith – she never made any attempt to convert those of other beliefs and as she once said, she was happy for Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims and Catholics to pray together to the God she believed they all followed
Dear Merseymike, If the fundamentalists are Michael Nazir-Ali then thats good isnt it. My point is not the label but what the label is associated with; otherwise labelling is imo more of a demonstration of an ‘us and them’ siege mentality . The other point about Mother Teresa was that she wasn’t a universalist. Everyone can know God, from His creation at the very least, but she followed Christ and believed in Christ, what she did she did for Jesus. When I speak to Muslims for example I don’t have to tell them about God, they already believe in God,… Read more »
“My point is not the label but what the label is associated with; otherwise labelling is imo more of a demonstration of an ‘us and them’ siege mentality”
DaveW,
We disagree so often, that I feel obliged to point out the times, like this one, where we do agree. It applies to things like fundamentalist and revisionist, and even conservative and liberal too.
Actually, Mother Teresa was clearly a universalist Christian. Its not a position unique to her within Catholic theology. Of course she followed Jesus, but she also believed that the followers of other faiths followed God as well
There is so much evidence for that, I suggest you do some research. Its actually why some American conservative evangelicals dislike her so much.
>…already dismissing Rowan Williams with the cutting words Tacitus used about the Emperor Galba:
” omnium consensu capax imperii nisi imperasset “.<
Go to Wikipedia for these lines and it says:
He was born as Servius Sulpicius Galba near Terracina, “on the left as you go towards Fundi” in the words of Suetonius. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galba
On the left as you go towards fundy?? Fundamentalism?
I don’t think it was Bishop Nazir-Ali’s place to say whether muslim women should wear the veil or not. I wouldn’t tell him not to wear his purple gown. However for security reasons I am sure no muslim woman would mind lifting her veil. Nuns cover their hair and many religious Christian women did in in earlier times. Christian brides cover their faces in church as do widows. As the origin of our religions is the same i.e from God there is much in common, thank God.
Just read a BBC article re: Bishop Nazir-Ali’s speech (?) comments on Britain facing a ‘moral vacuum’. I fully agree, but then I have been making much the same argument for at least 10 years. How has it come to pass that public figures are only now beginning to wake up to the dangers of multi-culturalism, mass, uncontrolled immigration and the liberal-left’s deliberate destruction of a Christian, unified Britain? I have to say that the Anglican church has been complicit in the disintegration and it is only a matter of time before it apologises itself out of existence. I was… Read more »