50 Facts About Michael Nazir-Ali

Michael James Nazir-Ali is a Pakistani-born British Catholic priest and former Anglican bishop.

Michael Nazir-Ali served as the 106th Bishop of Rochester from 1994 to 2009 and, before that, as Bishop of Raiwind in Pakistan.

Michael Nazir-Ali is currently the director of the Oxford Centre for Training, Research, Advocacy and Dialogue.

Michael Nazir-Ali is a dual citizen of Pakistan and Britain.

Michael Nazir-Ali was born in Karachi, Pakistan, on 19 August 1949, the son of James and Patience Nazir-Ali.

Michael Nazir-Ali attended the Roman Catholic-run St Paul's School and St Patrick's College in Karachi and attended Roman Catholic services there.

Michael Nazir-Ali began identifying as a Christian at the age of 15; he was formally received into the Anglican Church of Pakistan aged 20.

Michael Nazir-Ali studied in preparation for ordination at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, and undertook postgraduate studies in theology at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge and the Australian College of Theology.

Michael Nazir-Ali studied at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School and in 2005 he was awarded the Lambeth DD.

Michael Nazir-Ali has been elected an honorary fellow of his colleges at Oxford and Cambridge.

Michael Nazir-Ali has been invited to lecture as Professor of Theology, at the University of St Thomas or the Angelicum in Rome from 2022.

Michael Nazir-Ali was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1976 in the Church of Pakistan and worked in Karachi and Lahore.

Michael Nazir-Ali became the first Bishop of Raiwind in West Punjab, at the time he was the youngest bishop in the Anglican Communion.

Michael Nazir-Ali was appointed Bishop of Rochester, England, in 1994 and, in 1999, entered the House of Lords as one of the "Lords Spiritual" because of his seniority in episcopal office, the first religious leader from Asia to serve there.

Michael Nazir-Ali was one of the final two candidates for Archbishop of Canterbury, though Rowan Williams was appointed on the recommendation of the British prime minister, Tony Blair.

From 1997 to 2003, Michael Nazir-Ali was chairman of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority's ethics and law committee.

Michael Nazir-Ali was a leader of the Network for Inter-faith Concerns of the Anglican Communion.

From 2010, Michael Nazir-Ali was the visiting bishop of the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina in the United States.

On 29 September 2021, Michael Nazir-Ali was received into the Catholic Church by the Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, Monsignor Keith Newton.

Michael Nazir-Ali was ordained as a deacon by Archbishop Kevin McDonald on 28 October 2021 at St Mary's College, Oscott, and a priest by Cardinal Vincent Nichols on 30 October 2021 at Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory Catholic Church in London.

Michael Nazir-Ali was generally regarded as being on the Evangelical wing of Anglicanism but described himself as being "Catholic and evangelical".

Michael Nazir-Ali is familiar with a number of Middle Eastern, Asian and European languages and has played a significant role in the Church of England's ecumenical and interfaith dialogues.

At first Michael Nazir-Ali supported the ordination of women as priests in the Church of England.

Michael Nazir-Ali chaired the Rochester Commission on whether women should be made bishops.

Michael Nazir-Ali has written and spoken on a number of bioethical issues including in vitro fertilisation, stem cell research, organ donation and assisted dying.

Michael Nazir-Ali has argued that human dignity is based on "transcendental values" and must be respected at all stages of human development, even when we are not sure whether there is a person, on the basis of the precautionary principle.

Michael Nazir-Ali attended the March for Life, the first to ever take place in London, on 5 May 2018, where he delivered the closing prayer and had rubbish thrown all over him by a protester.

In late September 2017, Michael Nazir-Ali spoke at the UK Independence Party conference in Torquay.

Michael Nazir-Ali has spoken at the Conservative and Labour Party Conferences on a variety of issues, including the family and social Justice.

Michael Nazir-Ali was one of the bishops who signed a letter against Rowan Williams' decision not to block the appointment of Jeffrey John as Bishop of Reading in 2003.

Michael Nazir-Ali was "accused of pandering to hate and homophobia" by activists after the media published a statement on the day a gay pride parade took place in London and before a major Anglican event at which he was preaching, claiming he had called on homosexuals to "repent and be changed".

Michael Nazir-Ali argued that the decline of Christianity and the rise of liberal values in the UK during the 1960s had created a moral vacuum which radical Islam threatened to fill.

Michael Nazir-Ali was criticised by the Ramadhan foundation and the President of the National Secular Society, who accused him of "doing the BNP's work", but was praised by The Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Michael Nazir-Ali has himself written against Christian involvement in far-right organisations such as the British National Party.

Michael Nazir-Ali has become a spokesman for an engagement between Christianity and Islam and has been involved in a number of important dialogues between Muslims and others.

Michael Nazir-Ali has led the Church's dialogue with Al-Azhar As-Sharif, the premier place of Sunni learning, and with Shi'a Ulema in Iran.

In November 2006 Michael Nazir-Ali criticised the "dual psychology" of some extremist Muslims who seek both "victimhood and domination".

In January 2008, Michael Nazir-Ali wrote that Islamic extremism had turned "already separate communities into 'no-go' areas" and that there had been attempts to "impose an 'Islamic' character on certain areas", citing the call to prayer from mosques as an example, and the pressure on people to conform to Islamist norms in dress, conduct, and speech.

Michael Nazir-Ali criticised the government's integration policy as "an agenda which still lacks the underpinning of a moral and spiritual vision", and asked that the government make a public affirmation of the "Christian roots of British society".

The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Hazel Blears, responded to Michael Nazir-Ali's comments by stating that Britain was a "secular democracy", and challenged him to name specific "no go" areas.

Michael Nazir-Ali subsequently received threatening phone calls, but said his "overflowing postbag" had been "overwhelmingly supportive".

In 2018, Michael Nazir-Ali wrote that he was not in favour of banning a face veil but that in certain circumstances such as security at airports, road safety and professions requiring personal interaction it should not be worn.

Michael Nazir-Ali was a supporter of the Anglican realignment movement and the Global Anglican Future Conference.

Michael Nazir-Ali attended and spoke at the first and second GAFCON gatherings as well as GAFCON III which took place in Jerusalem from 17 to 22 June 2018.

Michael Nazir-Ali attended G19, the additional conference that took place in Dubai from 25 February to 1 March 2019.

Michael Nazir-Ali was one of the founders of the Mere Anglicanism annual conferences in the US and has been a supporter of the Global South.

Michael Nazir-Ali met his wife, Valerie Cree, who is Scottish, in Cambridge.

Michael Nazir-Ali's pastimes have included hockey, cricket, table tennis and Scrabble as well as writing poetry in English and Persian and listening to music.

Michael Nazir-Ali has been awarded the Shaikh Yamani Gold Medal in Islamic Studies and the Paul Harris International Fellowship by Rotary.

Michael Nazir-Ali has published a number of monographs and many other articles in newspapers and journals.