Source: The Sydney Morning Herald
Wire Service: Reuters
A Church of England bishop has said Islamic extremism has turned some areas of Britain into "no-go areas" for non-Muslims, drawing ire from the Muslim community, which dismissed his comments as scaremongering.
"There has been a worldwide resurgence of the ideology of Islamic extremism," the Pakistan-born Bishop of Rochester, Doctor Michael Nazir-Ali, wrote in the Sunday Telegraph.
One of the results of this, he said, was "to turn already separate communities into 'no-go' areas where adherence to this ideology has become a mark of acceptability".
"In many ways, this is but the other side of the coin to far-right intimidation."
Nazir-Ali, the Church of England's only Asian bishop, said attempts had been made to impose an Islamic character on certain areas, for example, by amplifying the call to prayer.