CAIRO — A senior Church of England bishop has accused church leaders of failing to do enough to convert British Muslims to Christianity out of fear of a backlash, reported the Daily Mail on Sunday, May 25.

“I think it may have gone too far and what we need now is to recover our nerve,” Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester in southeast England, said a day earlier.

He claimed that church leaders were shying away from converting Muslims as part of efforts to welcome ethnic minorities.

“Our nation is rooted in the Christian faith, and that is the basis for welcoming people of other faiths,” he said.

“You cannot have an honest conversation on the basis of fudge.”

Pakistan-born Nazir-Ali, the Church’s only Asian bishop whose father had converted from Islam to Christianity, is infamous for his repetitive attacks on Britain’s Muslims, estimated at nearly two million.

In January, he accused British Muslims of turning some parts of Britain into “no-go” areas for people of other religions.

Amid wide condemnations from across the political spectrum, the government immediate refused his claims of no-go areas for non-Muslims.

Nazir-Ali had earlier claimed that a “radical Islam” was being taught in mosque schools and asked the government to restrict overseas Muslim scholars.

Contrary to his argument, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith announced during recent visits to Pakistan and Bangladesh plans to invite Asian imams to help fight extremism.

Motion

Some members of the General Synod, the Church’s “parliament,” share the passion of Nazir-Ali, who in 2002 was tipped to become Archbishop of Canterbury before Dr Rowan Williams took over from Dr George Carey.

They are forcing the highly sensitive issue of converting British Muslims on the agenda of the July meeting.

Paul Eddy, a General Synod member, is sponsoring a motion calling on bishops to clarify their strategy on conversion of Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs or followers of other religions.

He accuses many bishops of downplaying the Church’s missionary role, insisting that converting adherents of other faiths had always been a Biblical injunction on Christians.

Eddy claims that by “allowing the rise of another religion in our country, all that Britain stands for is up for grabs.”

But he admits to having received angry emails and telephone calls from opponents, including four bishops, leaning on him to drop his controversial campaign.

The new controversy coincides with recent warning by Christian groups that the number of mosque-goers will overtake that of church-goers by 2050.

Many Muslims believe such reports are meant to intimidate the public, and particularly Christians, by depicting Muslims and their faith as a threat to the Church and Christianity in Britain.

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