Anglican Bishop Speaks Out in England

The Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, who received death threats for airing his views on Islamic issues, has vowed that he will continue to speak out.

Shortly after being made a bishop in Pakistan - at 35 he was the youngest in the Anglican Church - he was forced to flee to Britain to seek refuge from Muslims who wanted to kill him.

Bishop Nazir-Ali arrived in Britain in the 1980s and seems to have taken up the mantle for defending the country's values he fears are being threatened by a loss of its Christian heritage.

He says that he never expected to suffer the same treatment in Britain and expresses concerns over recent social developments.

"The real danger to Britain today is the spiritual and moral vacuum that has occurred for the last 40 or 50 years. When you have such a vacuum something will fill it.

"If people are not given a fresh way of understanding what it means to be a Christian and what it means to be a Christian-based society then something else may well take the place of all that we're used to and that could be Islam."

"I don't believe in multiculturalism. When people come to this country they have to obey the laws of the land."
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales