I was invited onto the BBC 1 Sunday morning programme “The Big Question” to discuss Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali’s comments on Islamic “no-go areas”.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu87DzLY3Io]
I arrived at the studio and immediately met the chairman of a recognised Muslim organisation who said he is adamantly against Tablighi Jamaat’s proposed mega-mosque at West Ham. He offered his support for the campaign to stop the mosque. It’s helpful there is growing Muslim opposition to Tablighi Jamaat’s plans.
After the programme had finished, a senior Hindu man from Leicester told me that he had seen me speak against the mega-mosque and offered his support too.
I was having a good day – sacrificing Sunday morning church for the TV studio, but gaining new friends!
The only disappointment was the Bishop of Leicester, Tim Stevens, whose criticism of his fellow Anglican, Nazir-Ali, was disgraceful and whose contribution to the debate was anaemic. Why does the C of E specialise in such insubstantial and ineffective leaders? Give me the exceptions, John Sentamu of York and Michael Nazir-Ali of Rochester, any day. Why is it the best bishops are the non-English bishops?