Bishop criticises 'victim mentality' of Muslims
05/11/2006
An Asian Protestant bishop has criticised many Muslims in Britain for having what he termed a "victim mentality".
The Bishop of Rochester hit out at extremist imams
The Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali, whose father converted from Islam, told The Sunday Times he believed that some Muslims had a "dual psychology" in which they desired both "victimhood and domination".
He said: "Their complaint often boils down to the position that it is always right to intervene when Muslims are victims, as in Bosnia or Kosovo, and always wrong when the Muslims are the oppressors or terrorists, as with the Taliban or in Iraq."
He said failure to counter these beliefs had allowed radical Islam to flourish in Britain and stricter checks should be made to exclude extremist clerics from the country.
He added: "The two main causes of the present situation [rising extremism] are fundamentalist imams and material on the internet."
He proposed that checks on qualifications, knowledge of the English language and an understanding of British life and culture should be made to filter out extremist imams.
The 57-year-old, who was born a Catholic in Karachi but converted to Protestantism at 20, said he believed the Christian faith was intermingled with British values.
He also joined in the argument surrounding women wearing full-face veils, saying that in some circumstances they were not suitable.
He said: "I can see nothing in Islam that prescribes the wearing of a full-face veil. In the supermarket, those at the cash tills need to be recognised. Teaching is another context in which society requires recognition and identification."
Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, told the newspaper that the bishop's comments were not "very helpful for community relationships".
telegraph.co.uk
05/11/2006
An Asian Protestant bishop has criticised many Muslims in Britain for having what he termed a "victim mentality".
The Bishop of Rochester hit out at extremist imams
The Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali, whose father converted from Islam, told The Sunday Times he believed that some Muslims had a "dual psychology" in which they desired both "victimhood and domination".
He said: "Their complaint often boils down to the position that it is always right to intervene when Muslims are victims, as in Bosnia or Kosovo, and always wrong when the Muslims are the oppressors or terrorists, as with the Taliban or in Iraq."
He said failure to counter these beliefs had allowed radical Islam to flourish in Britain and stricter checks should be made to exclude extremist clerics from the country.
He added: "The two main causes of the present situation [rising extremism] are fundamentalist imams and material on the internet."
He proposed that checks on qualifications, knowledge of the English language and an understanding of British life and culture should be made to filter out extremist imams.
The 57-year-old, who was born a Catholic in Karachi but converted to Protestantism at 20, said he believed the Christian faith was intermingled with British values.
He also joined in the argument surrounding women wearing full-face veils, saying that in some circumstances they were not suitable.
He said: "I can see nothing in Islam that prescribes the wearing of a full-face veil. In the supermarket, those at the cash tills need to be recognised. Teaching is another context in which society requires recognition and identification."
Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, told the newspaper that the bishop's comments were not "very helpful for community relationships".
telegraph.co.uk