Gordon Brown denies bishop's 'no-go' area claims

By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
Published: 8 January 2008

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article3155121.ece 

The Prime Minister today denied claims by a conservative evangelical Church of England bishop that parts of Britain had become “no-go” areas for non-Muslims.

Speaking to journalists at Downing Street, Gordon Brown said: “I know that there are pressures in many areas of the country but I don’t accept that there are or should be no-go areas in any part of the country.

“I do believe that Britain’s Christian heritage which underlies the establishment of the church is an absolutely critical and essential part of the fabric of our national life.”

The Government is to bring forward new measures to promote inter-faith dialogue in Britain.

Mr Brown, in his first news conference of the year, said: “So far from people being isolated from each other and never talking to each other, and far from there being no go-areas in the country, I want the coming together of all religions - where there are different religions in the community - to actually happen.”

Earlier this week, the Bishop of Rochester, the Right Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, warned that some communities in the UK have turned into no-go areas for non-Muslims.

Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, he said there had been a worldwide resurgence of the ideology of Islamic extremism." One of the results of this has been to further alienate the young from the nation in which they were growing up and also to turn already separate communities into ‘no-go’ areas where adherence to this ideology has become a mark of acceptability.”

He also said it was becoming increasingly difficult for Christianity to be the nation’s public religion in a multifaith multicultural society.

He said: “If it had not been for the black majority churches and the recent arrival of people from central and eastern Europe, the Christian cause in many of our cities would have looked a lost one.

“At last it seems the Government may be waking up to the situation; to the importance of English as a means of communication, to greater integration in housing, schools and leisure pursuits and in citizenship education.”

Communities Secretary Hazel Blears has also dismissed the Bishop’s comments. On Monday she said did not recognise his description of no-go areas and described his remarks as “pretty unhelpful.”

New Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has described the claims as “a gross caricature of reality” and the Muslim Council of Britain accused the bishop of scaremongering.

Meanwhile, the main organisation representing the Jewish community in Britain announced that it is to appoint a Muslim adviser to a scheme aimed at promoting greater understanding between faith schools.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews is looking for a Muslims schools adviser to take part in its Shared Futures project, an initiative to foster links between Jewish and other faith schools.

The adviser will help develop programmes that will appeal to Jewish and Muslim schools taking part in the project. Board of Deputies’ community issues director Alex Goldberg said: “This is an exciting opportunity for faith schools.

“Shared Futures reflects the requirement for greater cooperation between different faith schools in promoting a more cohesive, society. It will allow our schools to comply with these requirements in ways that conform to the ethos of individual schools.”