The church speaks about islam again, I am left bemused

[thepixy]

So, christian church leaders speaking out about islam seems to be a reasonably bad idea then.
Church of England Bishop Dr Nazir-Ali says the archbishop is wrong about aspects of Sharia law needing to be considered in our legal system (I agree with him here - then it all gets a bit fuzzy). This is the same bishop who said that the rise of muslim

Comments

[tyrell]

Why is the bishop, who as you can tell by his name does actually have a muslim background, frightened of the call to prayer? (

I don't know if he's frightened of it, I got the impression it was more about "You can't enjoy the peace and quiet in Merry Olde England if there's lots of noise in Arabic. Wouldn't be right! Oh, Church bells don't count, they're all English n' shit."

Also, there was something about Bells being neutral noise, whereas the call to prayer says the equivalent of "We're the Best!" and is therefore too preachy. I did not make either of these reasons up, they were in the news.

Not everyone here is christian, not everyone here is religious.

Hardly anyone here is religious, which is why he's freaking out. If you add the number of people who turn up to church once a week for appearances but don't really think about it at any other time (a large number in my experience) then it's nearly everybody.

From the link: "People of every faith should be free within the law to follow what their spiritual leaders direct them

[thepixy]

So it is wrong for the call to prayer to say 'we're the best' - but ok for a christian bishop to say 'christianity is the best, quick, cling to it before islam brings about our dooooooom'.
I just don't think that is really is the 'duty' of church leaders to speak out about this stuff. I think they should shut up.

[tyrell]

free within the law to follow what their spiritual leaders direct them to..."

I was thinking more "free to believe what they like" or "free to follow any religion", not "free to be told what to do by Authority, as long as it's us. Stop thinking for yourselves. OBEY! etc"

[thepixy]

I liked that too. I would like to say I obey no one, but my ico betrays the lie! ;)

[peppapig]

I'm sure some people DO feel unsafe going into muslim areas. I wonder how much of that is because their middle class white bigotted upbringing means they feel unsafe walking in areas where everyone's skin is more than a little swarthy.

[thepixy]

I think that is exactly why, coupled with stupid media coverage and this kind of nonsense being spouted by the church. You're right - I don't think those people are scared of extremism in and of itself, I think they are scared of the 'otherness' of those people - they'd be just as uncomfortably in predominantly black areas as they are in islamic places.

[peppapig]

and of course, what about all the black muslims? Mwahahahaha it's taking over teh world!

[thepixy]

black muslims?
*ducks & covers*