“Bishop Nazir-Ali is bang on the money when he talks about ‘no-go’ areas for Christians in fundamentalist Muslim ghettoes in Britain. But he could have gone further still. This country is littered with ‘no-go’ areas, not just physically, but culturally, spiritually, intellectually and academically, too. Our very liberties are being torched in the name of ‘diversity’.

“The pernicious doctrine of multiculturalism has turned us into a society where people are frightened to speak their minds and justice has been flipped on its head. To express an opinion contrary to the ruthlessly enforced, politically motivated conformity of the Fascist Left is to risk a vicious campaign of character assassination which, if you work in the public sector, will almost certainly cost you your job. The private sector isn’t immune, either. Only last week, we learned of a banker who was sacked for making a harmless, lame joke about Shi’ites.

“We have reached the ludicrous position where a Pakistani clergyman is facing demands for his resignation and is being accused of stirring up racial and religious hatred simply for speaking the truth. All Bishop Nazir-Ali did was state the bleedin’ obvious. Yet even William Hague has attacked him, saying the idea that Christians are made to feel uncomfortable by Muslim extremists is not a Britain he recognises.

“In which case, I suggest Hague heads a few stops east of Westminster, along the Mile End and Whitechapel Roads, where Muslim monoculturalism holds sway. Or visits Leicester, Bradford, Burnley, Oldham or parts of Birmingham. It is beyond dispute that there is a concerted campaign by Islamic extremists to force sharia law on to significant areas of Christian Britain. And there is no doubt that in predominantly Muslim areas, they are winning.”

Richard Littlejohn in the Daily Mail, 8 January 2008

“There is a fair chance that the sort of comments that attract criticism, not only from the political establishment but also from the self-appointed spokesmen of the Muslim community are worth hearing. So it is with the weekend’s unvarnished warning from the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, of the perils of multiculturalism….

“By focusing on the way the adhan, or call to prayer, is delivered through amplified loudspeakers in an attempt to ‘impose an Islamic character on certain areas’ and by questioning whether non-Muslims ‘wish to be told the creed of a particular faith five times a day on the loudspeaker’, the bishop was raising an issue of genuine concern in many communities. As a tolerant, Christian country we resent it if any group seeks to take advantage of that tolerance by trying to impose its own views.

“Yet Labour, the Tories and the Lib Dems have responded with knee-jerk predictability, desperate as ever not to offend Muslim sensibilities. It shows once again how difficult it is to engage in a mature debate about the damaging impact of multiculturalism in this country in general, and the threat posed by Islamic radicalism to our way of life in particular.”

Daily Telegraph, 8 January 2008