Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali has warned of the danger to the nation if
the Government disregards Britain’s moral and spiritual heritage.The bishop was speaking at the launch of his new book, Triple Jeopardy for the West: Aggressive Secularism, Radical Islamism and Multiculturalism, at All Souls Church in central London last night.
He said that radical Islam, multiculturalism and aggressive secularism were “real dangers” to Britain.
The failure of multiculturalism to integrate communities, he argued, had left them isolated and exposed to radicalisation.
“Multiculturalism to my mind has not been very productive in integrating communities,” he said.
“It has exposed communities in their isolation to extremism, whether of the far right or religious extremism.”
Bishop Nazir-Ali called for a change in approach by the Government to improve the integration of communities and enable social mobility in tertiary education.
Whilst acknowledging that it was the task of the Government to balance the competing interests of different communities, he insisted that the state “must have a moral and spiritual vision if it is to do that job properly”.
Criticising aggressive secularists, the bishop said that the absence of a moral debate on the hot button issues of the day would only make it harder to formulate policies and laws on a whole range of issues like embryo-related research, assisted suicide and abortion.
If interpretations of the world and human life were reduced to materialism, he further warned, the result would be “legal positivism” or the assumption that “law is law is law”.