Meet the Most Courageous Man in Britain: a Pakistani

From the desk of Thomas Landen on Wed, 2009-04-01 11:10

To the surprise of many, Dr. Michael Nazir-Ali, the (Anglican) Bishop of Rochester, England, has announced that he will retire next September. The 59-year old Bishop says that he is resigning so that he can work “for endangered or beleaguered Christian minorities both abroad and in the UK.”

Bishop Michael and his family live under constant police protection following death threats made in January 2008 after the Bishop had warned that there are several ‘no-go areas’ across Britain where non-Muslims live in danger. His assertion was dismissed, both explicitly by politicians (including Conservatives) who denied the existence of no-go areas because they have “never seen any,” and implicitly by clerics from his own church who declared that the introduction of Sharia law in Britain is “unavoidable” in order to “maintain social cohesion.”

Last June, when I visited Bishop Michael at Bishopscourt in Rochester, police were discreetly guarding the premises. Contemporary Britain not only has neighborhoods where one cannot enter without endangering oneself, but also topics which one cannot mention without endangering oneself – one of these topics being reference to the existence of such no-go neighborhoods. By threatening to kill those who warn the British people, Britain’s enemies are stealthily forcing the country into submission. Meanwhile, its political leaders are betraying the people through their cowardice. Not a single politician from Britain’s mainstream political parties came to Bishop Michael’s aid. On the contrary, the conservatives muttered that he was “putting it too strongly”, while the liberals said he was making “a gross caricature of reality.”

Bishop Michael told us that he was not naive. He knew that speaking out could be dangerous. He felt, however, that it was his duty to speak on behalf of persecuted Christians, including those in his own country, Britain. He had been through a similar ordeal before. Dr. Nazir-Ali is Pakistani-born, the son of a Muslim who converted to Catholicism. In 1984, he became the Anglican Bishop of Raiwind, Pakistan, but, as his life was in danger in his native country, he had to flee to Britain in 1986. Fifteen years ago, when he was ordained in Rochester, he became England’s first diocesan bishop of non-European descent.

As such, ironically, he spoke out more forcefully in defense of his adopted country and its Christian values than British-born church leaders, let alone British politicians. In a 2006 Sunday Times interview he said: “Characteristic British values have developed from the Christian faith and its vision of personal and common good. After they were clarified by the enlightenment they became the bedrock of our modern political life. These values need to be recovered to help us to inculcate the virtues of generosity, loyalty, moderation and love.” In an op-ed article in Standpoint magazine last year he criticized the British for having replaced their Christian heritage by multiculturalism which has left them utterly defenceless against extremist Islamism. “While some acknowledge the debt which Britain owes to the Judaeo-Christian tradition, they claim also that the values derived from it are now free-standing and that they can also be derived from other world-views. As to them being free-standing, the danger, rather, is that we are living on past capital which is showing increasing signs of being exhausted,” Bishop Michael warned.

The collapse of Britain is visible in the utter lack of political leadership in a nation which in the past has provided Europe with many of its most distinguished and courageous politicians. Today, even the finest of British politicians, such as Daniel Hannan, an intelligent and eloquent Member of the European Parliament for the British Conservatives who recently became a star among American conservatives, is blind to the danger which Islam poses to Europe.

When I met Bishop Michael I asked him whether he had a political remedy for the dire situation that Britain (and Europe) is currently in. He had not. Religious leaders are not politicians and should not be treated as such. When I pressured him he said that he thought Britain might be in better shape if it had a Christian-Democrat Party. That remark struck me as politically naïve, since Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and other European countries are in no better shape than Britain, suffering from the same multiculturalism, despite having been governed by strong Christian-Democrat parties during most of the past decades. Though Bishop Michael is definitely not naïve, it was unfair of me to try to make him articulate a political remedy. As a Bishop his duty is not to engage in politics but to speak the truth “for the truth shall set you free.”

Speaking the truth is what Michael Nazir-Ali has been doing throughout his years as a bishop. It is unclear why he has decided to resign. Some think that he was pressured into leaving the Church of England. Perhaps he was. He is only 59 and was expected to serve until the age of 70. Some have called his resignation a “victory for Islamism.” However, even if he is resigning voluntarily because he feels that “the endangered or beleaguered Christian minorities both abroad and in the UK” have more need of him than the diocese of Rochester does, his resignation indicates the terrible shape Britain is in now that Christians are once again being persecuted there.

Many hope that he might “become a global figurehead of Christian opposition to Islam and to certain forms of multiculturalism.” As The Guardian’s Andrew Brown writes, that post “is vacant (the pope certainly doesn't want it).” One thing is certain, Bishop Michael is not shirking his responsibilities and running away from danger. He is one of the few Church leaders who are prepared to share in the passion of Christ. If Britain (and Europe) is going to be saved it will be by people like him, not by its politicians.

The Urrasti and the Anarresti aka Catwings

Submitted by Atlanticist911 on Mon, 2009-04-27 10:56.

@ AngelaE8654

 

I suppose you realize that there is probably at least one crackpot 'contributor' on this forum who will consider your involvement in the shutting down of that Nigerian scam as yet another example of white racism and a Christian hate crime directed against the innocent African  dispossessed. Anyway, thanks for sharing your bio with the rest of us and my personal CONGRATULATIONS go out to you on  a job well done.

Certainties (3)

Submitted by Atlanticist911 on Fri, 2009-04-03 10:22.

@ KO

 

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to offer you some clarification.

 

If the first sentence in your original post had stated that  Westerners must not rely ONLY (i.e. solely)  on  immigrants to defend them from alien aggression, we wouldn't be having this conversation, but it didn't so we are. Perhaps I have read too much into a sentence that I considered on first reading to contain too little. If so, I stand corrected but if not... 

Certainties 4

Submitted by KO on Fri, 2009-04-03 14:36.

Thank you, Atlanticist. I am happy to be having this conversation. I would say we should welcome and honor allies wherever we find them, but not rely on them, in the sense of depending on them and making our fate depend on their achievements. All honor to Bishop Michael! We could use him here in the U.S.A.! But we need to rely on our native bishops, like Robert Duncan and Jack Iker, and even more, on our parishioners, to sweep out the anti-Western, anti-Christian, white-guilt-worshipping multiculturalists.

RE: Meet the Most Courageous Man in Britain

Submitted by Kapitein Andre on Fri, 2009-04-03 09:23.

1.  Au contraire, there is little stealthy or subtle about the submission of Britons to the Islamic minority. Whereas Europeans colonized Africa and Asia, their former subjects are colonizing Europe; whereas European colonial administrations used native levies to combat insurgencies, non-White migrants are now using Europeans and their own institutions against them. 

 

2.  I have long made the "past capital" argument. Moreover, Christianity is not derived from human consensus, it is derived from divine instruction. Without a supreme arbiter - God - this tradition is mere convention, which is subject to change once a new consensus is agreed upon. Irrespective of post-war cultural and ideological changes, Islamic immigration is the major threat to Western culture. The matter must be settled either by deferring to a higher authority or by revising Western culture as its demographics change. While the Western tradition is more than only Christianity, the latter has been essential to conceiving of and upholding our rights and freedoms. It is true that these rights and freedoms have been grossly abused in the name of Christianity; yet the Scriptures effectively set them in stone. Islam aside, whether we are discussing Marxism-Leninism, or even atheistic liberalism, human rights and freedoms are negotiable without reference to a higher authority. Ironically, the foundations for both egalitarianism and liberalism are dependent on Christianity.

 

3.  Spengler at the Asia Times regards Benedict as an opponent of Islam, albeit one who treads softly, and who does battle in the realms of academia and faith, rather than populism.

bishop

Submitted by fred middleton on Thu, 2009-04-02 22:42.

Just a matter of fact, there was a black, Nigerian, bishop of Durham, about a century ago I think.

Certainties (of the home grown variety)

Submitted by Atlanticist911 on Thu, 2009-04-02 21:52.

If my choices are to be increasingly limited to a choice between the immigrant who espouses Western ideals, and the white Westerner who espouses multicultural indoctrinaion, I make no apologies for, or feel I should need to offer reasons to justify why, I choose the former over the latter every time.

Certainties 2

Submitted by KO on Fri, 2009-04-03 01:35.

Atlanticist: No one is asking you to apologize. I am asking, rather, why should that be our only choice? To test the degree of certainty we are talking about, however: if you were in a crowded lifeboat and you could save either your own leftist brother or a stout adoptive bulldog from New Delhi, which would it be? If saving one of them required you yourself to jump in the drink, then whom would you save? Ahoy!

Perhaps Dr. Nazir erred,

Submitted by Steiner on Thu, 2009-04-02 21:47.

He missed an opportunity to call a nation to repentance. A people to change their ways. 

He missed an opportunity to call the queen and princes to repent, change their ways and be examples to the English people and the rest of the western world.

The answer is not organized state religion...that is what Islam is. The answer, from a Christian stand point, is that people must repent, seek Christ and in the Spirit and help of Christ leave their sinful ways.

He should not resign, but should preach this message until he is removed from his position.

 

Taken At Face Value

Submitted by Steve Atkinson on Wed, 2009-04-01 21:02.

Bishop Michael's words have the ring of not only truth, but something equally as important in them:

"After they were clarified by the enlightenment they became the bedrock of [OUR] modern political life. These values need to be recovered to help us to inculcate the virtues of generosity...."

Apparently, cultural assimilation was never a problem for Bishop Michael, may we offer the same accolades to the modern dis-assimilated native Brits?

Most Courageous Man in Britain (2)

Submitted by Atlanticist911 on Wed, 2009-04-01 19:41.

The Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali is indeed a very courageous man. Moreover, he is a peaceful man who seeks to retain Britain's Christian heritage by totally non-violent means. If this was pre 1948 India we were discussing and not Britain in 2009, and if Nazir-Ali was Gandhi and not a British Christian cleric, the euro-pacifists and like-minded twonks would be falling over themselves in support of his 'cause'. But from the evidence of the previous post, and my personal experience of earlier today, I just don't see that happening here.

doubts

Submitted by kappert on Thu, 2009-04-02 12:14.

When priests begin to appeal to fears (i.g. no-go-zones), they rather appeal to the opposite of courage. I would call him an agent provocateur, contributing that neighbours get armed and, when strolling through the imagined 'no-go-zones', shoot the person who tipped on their shoulders, leaving more than only a carbon footprint.

Home Grown Leaders

Submitted by KO on Thu, 2009-04-02 18:52.

Westerners must not rely on immigrants to defend them from alien aggression. Western elevation of minorities and immigrants who espouse Western ideals is multiculturalism at one remove, only a step above relying on "moderate Moslems" to fight the West's secular war with Islam. It is symptomatic of the white Westerner's multicultural indoctrination into the belief that he has no right to exist, defend himself, participate in politics, or thrive as long as there is a member of a minority group in sight. Bishop Michael may be an excellent man, but Westerners have to defend themselves and assert their own home truths.

publicity

Submitted by kappert on Wed, 2009-04-01 18:42.

Without any doubt, the bishop appears more on TV and newspapers than any other British clerical. As he retires, he surely joints some marketing entrepreneur to maintain alive the idea 'that he is receiving death threats', or maybe we see him jogging in his no-go areas.

@Atlanticist911

Submitted by Thomas Landen on Wed, 2009-04-01 18:34.

We are talking about Michael Nazir-Ali, the Anglican Bishop of Rochester, England.
NOT about Matthew Clark, the Catholic Bishop of Rochester, NY. The latter, unfortunately, has not resigned.

Most Courageous Man in Britain.

Submitted by Atlanticist911 on Wed, 2009-04-01 17:58.

I met him earlier today. He was and still is  an anti-Capitalist, pro (ish)-Obama, anti-American eco-twonk who tried to get me to sign his  petition for some cause or other. I threatened to leave my carbon footprint on his person if he didn't move out of my way. He moved.

Good in its way

Submitted by Frank Lee on Wed, 2009-04-01 15:03.

I would certainly celebrate if Dr. Nazir-Ali became "a global figurehead of Christian opposition to Islam and to certain forms of multiculturalism," but that effort will become effective only if Muslim elites (not the children of Christian converts) join in large numbers.  But for the most part Muslim intellectuals are cowards -- and who can blame them?  The best we can do is take exception when Western intellectuals make idiotic claims for the benign influence of Islam on Western culture, democracy, scientific inquiry, free speech, women's rights, gay rights, religious freedom, and so on.  And, for God's sake, it would help if European voters stopped electing politicians who suck up to intollerant Muslims in their own countries.