Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

‘Muslim Britain is becoming one big no-go area’ – Shiraz Maher backs Nazir-Ali, and is joined by Ed Husain

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Perhaps it had to be someone like Michael Nazir-Ali, the first Asian bishop in the Church of England, who would break with convention and finally point out the elephant in the room.

“His comments last week about the growing stranglehold of Muslim extremists in some communities revived debate about the future of multiculturalism and provoked a flurry of condemnation. Members of all three political parties immediately clamoured to dismiss him. ‘I don’t recognise the description that he’s talked about – no-go areas and people feeling intimidated’, said Hazel Blears, the communities secretary.

“A quick call to her Labour colleague John Reid, the former home secretary, would almost certainly have helped her to identify at least one of those places. Just over a year ago Reid was heckled by the Muslim extremist Abu Izzadeen in Leytonstone, east London, during a speech on extremism, appropriately. ‘How dare you come to a Muslim area’, Izzadeen screamed.”

Former Hizb ut-Tahrir member Shiraz Maher in the Sunday Times, 13 January 2008

Is Maher really so stupid that he believes the rantings of an isolated and unrepresentative nutter like Abu Izzadeen tell us anything about the attitudes of the Muslim population of Leytonstone?

Meanwhile over at the Sunday Telegraph another former HT member welcomes Nazir-Ali’s intervention. Ed Husain writes:

“Our political class, media and civil society are dominated by good-hearted, middle-class people who do not wish to admit that a well-intentioned idea – multiculturalism – can have such devastating effects. A weekly curry in Brick Lane is not enough to understand the the underworld that extremists manipulate to ensure that their version of a rigid, soulless political ideology – Islamism – reigns supreme in so-called ‘Muslim areas’….

“In the name of multiculturalism, we have created monocultural ghettoes. A shopper in London’s Green Street or Birmingham’s Alum Rock Road may as well be somewhere in India.

“My objection is not to a cluster of retail outlets specialising in ethnic attire – much like, say, Jermyn Street in Piccadilly for men – but to the surrounding communities where people languish for decades without access to English, education, social mobility or contact with mainstream Britain. The uncontrolled arrival of new immigrants only compounds the insularity.”

For Yusuf Smith’s response to Husain (“I do not see a debate about multiculturalism: I see an orchestrated attack on it, based on exaggerations and untruths”) see Indigo Jo Blogs, 13 January 2008

Bishop of Blackburn on relations with Muslims and ‘no-go areas’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Nicholas ReadeThe Rt Rev Nicholas Reade is questioned by Christian Today about his views on Michael Nazir-Ali’s comments and relations between Christians and Muslims. Sample quotes from the Bishop:

“In my own Diocese of Blackburn we have got areas with a high Muslim population but we have absolutely no no-go areas. We can go everywhere. We have extremely good relations with the Muslim communities.”

“The Church has got to accept that if you are the church in an area with a high Muslim population, then the church isn’t there to evangelise in the traditional sense but to dialogue and build relationships.”

“We’re not being pushed out of the public square. I have my cathedral here in Blackburn and there are no Muslims here trying to push me out of my cathedral!”

“I think there has to be equality for all under the law, but I am not aware of preferential treatment [for Muslims]. I don’t see any evidence of that.”

Bishop backs Muslim prayer call

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Bishop of Oxford has rejected another senior clergyman’s fears that broadcasting the Muslim call to prayer in East Oxford could create a “no-go area” for non-Muslims. The Rt Rev John Pritchard backed plans for the call to prayer in Oxford – splitting away from controversial comments made by the Anglican Church’s only Asian Bishop, the Rt Rev Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, of Rochester.

Bishop Michael said attempts were being made to impose an “Islamic character” on communities, creating no-go areas where people of different faiths would find it hard to live and work. But Bishop John said: “I want to distance myself from what the Bishop of Rochester has said. There are no no-go areas in this country that we are aware of and in all parts of the country there are good interfaith relationships developing.”

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Inayat’s letter to Telegraph – so far unpublished

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Dear Sir, Your leader column today (‘Bishop of Rochester leads the way’, Daily Telegraph, 8th Jan 2008) states that although Michael Nazir-Ali may have perhaps ‘overstated’ his case about Muslims turning parts of the UK into ‘no-go’ areas, you believed that his remarks would ‘resonate with many’.

The fact is that the good Bishop provided no evidence whatsoever to back up his highly inflammatory assertion. Which areas in our country was he thinking of? He did not say and that is surely totally unacceptable. There is absolutely no credible research that bears out his alarming claim.

You are quite right that Nazir-Ali’s remarks will unfortunately strike a chord with quite a few people in the UK but we would suggest that this may be more to do with how anti-Muslim prejudice is becoming increasingly acceptable in the UK. Instead of firmly challenging those prejudices it is very regrettable in our view that the Daily Telegraph seeks to pander to them.

We would have hoped that a figure of Dr Nazir-Ali’s seniority in the Church of England would have sought to promote better relations with different faith groups in the UK rather than seeking so blatantly to stir up hatred against a religious minority.

Yours faithfully,

Mr Inayat Bunglawala, Assistant Secretary-General, The Muslim Council of Britain

We don’t have no-go areas, says Brown

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Gordon Brown risked accusations of being deluded yesterday by declaring there are no ‘no-go areas’ for non-Muslims in Britain. The Prime Minister dismissed fears raised by the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, that Islamic extremists are cutting off many communities…. Mr Brown brushed aside the concerns as he answered a question from the Daily Express at his monthly press conference. His claim is bound to provoke accusations that he is out of touch with the experience of many people.”

Daily Express, 9 January 2008

MCB Regrets Bishop’s remarks on supposed Muslim No-Go Areas

Posted on by Bob Pitt

MCB banner

The MCB deeply regrets the incendiary comments recently made by the Bishop of Rochester Dr Michael Nazir Ali. His assertion that British Muslims have created ‘No Go areas’ in some parts of Britain is not borne out in any credible research; the remarks are alarming and serve only to benefit the far right.

Across the country, British Muslims are seeking common cause with their neighbours, sharing and living with peoples of other faiths. Local inter faith groups are coming together to seek mutual understanding and work for the common good. We need to encourage and work hard to foster this area of work, rather than create mistrust and suspicion. Dr Nazir-Ali’s comments are likely to do much harm in promoting greater understanding between religious groups and give more ammunition to those waiting in our periphery eager to take advantage of divisions in Christian and Muslim Interfaith work.

MCB Secretary General Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari said: “The MCB hopes that Dr Michael Nazir Ali takes more responsibility and care in his remarks although regrettably he has developed a habit of upsetting many sections of our community including his recent remarks on childless married couples and the Prince of Wales. As a key figure of the Anglican Church’s network for Inter faith, he ought to work to foster better relationships and bring about cohesion rather than create and aggravate community tensions”.

MCB press release, 7 January 2008

Muslims undermine ‘the very fabric of the nation’ claims Torygraph columnist

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“It has taken a long time to happen, but at last an authoritative and senior establishment figure has pointed to the elephant in the room. Before the Bishop of Rochester’s article yesterday in The Sunday Telegraph, the debate about immigration focused almost exclusively on who benefits financially. We have tiptoed around its effect on our society and culture. Even the somewhat belated recognition by ministers that newcomers should show a commitment to British values and demonstrate a knowledge of English tends to be couched in economic terms and ones favourable to the immigrants themselves – that they will get a job more easily and their lives will be enhanced if they are more integrated.

“However, few politicians have been willing to do what Michael Nazir-Ali has done, which is to question the impact of a growing Muslim population upon the very fabric of the nation, turning it within half a century into a multi-faith and multicultural land….

“For many years, those who wanted Britain to be recognised as a multicultural society which needed to revise, or even jettison, five centuries of Protestant hegemony held centre stage. Anyone who questioned it had their reputations trashed. The multiculturalists even coined an insult – Islamophobia – to try to close down the debate. Some of them yesterday accused the bishop of ‘scaremongering’. But while multiculturalism began as a facet of Britain’s characteristic toleration of other people’s ways, religions, cuisines, languages and dress, it metamorphosed into a political creed that held that ethnic minority groups should be allowed to do what they like.”

Philip Johnston in the Daily Telegraph, 7 January 2008

See also “No tolerance for no-go areas”, in the Daily Mail, “Muslims call for ‘no-go’ CoE bishop to resign” in the Daily Telegraph and “Muslim anger at bishop’s ‘ghettoes’ attack” in the Independent.

For Inayat Bunglawala’s reply to Nazir-Ali, see Comment is Free, 7 January 2008

For Yusuf Smith’s comments, see Indigo Jo Blogs, 6 January 2008

And Yasmin Alibhai-Brown has a piece entitled “No-go areas that are all in the bishop’s mind” in the Independent.

A Muslim headscarf can make a big difference…

Posted on by Bob Pitt

If you’re a woman who wears a Muslim head covering or hijab, a lot of people might think you look pleasant enough but they wouldn’t necessarily want you living in their neighborhood.

That’s one conclusion to draw from research done by our friends at HCD Research Inc., using their MediaCurves technology. They showed more than 600 people photos of the same woman, one in which her hair was uncovered, the second in which her head was covered with a hijab or Muslim head covering. According to the HCD Research:

The study was conducted by HCD Research, using its mediacurves.com web site during January 2-3, to determine whether Americans possess different views of a woman based on whether or not she wears traditional Muslim headwear.

Participants were divided into two randomly assigned groups. Members of each group were asked to view one of two separate photos of an attractive young woman. Neither photo was identified in any way. Each sample was then asked identical questions about the woman, her age, perceived personality, activities, and how acceptable she might be as a neighbor.

One-third of participants indicated that they would rather have the woman with the traditional headwear live in another place, another city, and maybe out of the U.S, as opposed to living in their neighborhood. However, a clear majority of participants (89%) reported that the woman without the shawl would be welcome in their neighborhood.

It’s ironic that as President Bush prepares to travel to the Middle East to talk to Israelis and Palestinians about living side by side in peace and security, so many Americans would say that they wouldn’t want to live side by side with a woman in a hijab.

Baltimore Sun, 4 January 2008