The Government must rethink policies on multiculturalism to counter the growing influence of Islamic radicalism, the Bishop of Rochester says in a Daily Telegraph article. Rt Revd Michael Nazir-Ali said the dominant practice in British Islam had changed from a pietistic mysticism to a more fundamentalist and politicised form. This was the result of a growth of mosques since the 1980s staffed by clerics adhering to radical Muslim traditions. Government housing and education policies that favour segregation with the aim of protecting immigrant cultures have the effect of alienating one culture from another, he said. The bishop urged potential immigrants to be screened for their sympathy for British values. Chief among these, he said, is the ‘innate dignity of all with fundamental equality … liberty and safety from harm’.
