Events Detail

The Center for Religious Freedom

held a discussion on

Apostasy, Blasphemy, and Other Sharia Laws in the Modern World

With

Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

12:00 – 2:00 PM

               Bishop Nazir-Ali and Nina Shea

Michael Nazir-Ali — the 106th Bishop of Rochester — has been an active critic of extremist Islam in Britain and an advocate on behalf of converts from Islam to Christianity. In many parts of the world, those accused of blasphemy or apostasy by Islamist radicals find their lives at risk. He discussed the attempts to enforce Islamic blasphemy and apostasy rules and other aspects of the growing trend of imposing Sharia in the West and elsewhere.

Bishop Nazir-Ali was born in Pakistan and educated at the Universities of Karachi, Cambridge, and Oxford. He was consecrated the first Bishop of Raiwind in Pakistan and in 1986 joined the staff of the Archbishop of Canterbury in Britain. He was General Secretary of the Church Mission Society and in 1994, he was appointed Bishop of Rochester, serving as the first non-white diocesan bishop in the Church of England. Since 1999 he has been a member of the House of Lords.

Noted for his theological acumen, Bishop Nazir-Ali has also earned a reputation for being "the most courageous man in Britain" due to his analysis of the threat of extremist Islam in Britain, especially the growth of extreme forms of Sharia law. There have been many threats on his life, especially over the last year after he warned that Islamic extremists had created "no-go areas" across Britain where non-Muslims faced intimidation. On September 1, he resigned from his Bishopric to devote himself full-time to defending endangered and beleaguered Christian minorities.

This lecture is part of the Center for Religious Freedom's fall series on "Lifting the Theocratic Iron Curtain: Examining the Application of Muslim Blasphemy and Apostasy Rules in the Contemporary World"

For more information contact Beth Kerley at bkerley@hudson.org.

Betsy and Walter Stern Conference Center

Hudson Institute

1015 15^th Street, NW

Sixth Floor

Washington, D.C. 20005