English Channel migrants come in search of community and belonging
Earlier this week, I found within the BBC treasure trove of the Alistair Cooke archive a 1992 edition in which he explored the vexed question of immigration and the relevance…
Community cohesion
If the SNP’s ‘Hate’ Bill becomes law, Scots’ freedom of religion will end
The SNP's Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill is currently wending its way through the committees and procedures of the Scottish Parliament. It provides for the modernising, consolidating and extending of hate crime legislation in Scotland. "Legislation in this…
Islamophobia definition creates a backdoor blasphemy law: it will be used to outlaw all criticism of Islam
Published below is an open letter to the Home Secretary Sajid Javid concerning the definition of 'Islamophobia' which has been proposed by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims.…
BBC Newsnight provides a pulpit for the myth of secular neutrality
"The best guarantee of religious tolerance is a well-organised secular state... there is a higher authority; it's called the law," proclaimed author Ian McEwan on the BBC's 'Newsnight', in a…
Birmingham church hosts men-only ‘community’ iftar
Having robustly defended Southwark Cathedral for hosting the sort of iftar (the break-fast evening meal during Ramadan) of which the Queen (and possibly Jesus) would approve, here's an iftar which…
Iftar in the Cathedral is exactly what the Queen (and Jesus) would want
If it had been called 'Tea & Chapatis' no-one would have batted an eyelid. But the meal had an upper-case Islamic name – Iftar – and it involved Arabic food:…
Rowan Williams was denounced for saying Sharia Law in UK was inevitable, so why isn’t Justin Welby being commended for saying it’s not?
Back in 2008, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams delivered a cerebral lecture about society and pluralism to a huddle of lawyers gathered in London. It might have remained fairly…
Charlottesville: white supremacists are fundamentally anti-American and anti-Christian
Charlottesville has gone downhill a bit since The Waltons: the town where John Boy negotiated his first bank loan, Jim-Bob learned about his dead twin brother, and grandma and grandpa…
Sorry, Bishop Christine, but child abuse gangs stem from a particular community
The Rt Rev'd Christine Hardman, Bishop of Newcastle, has put her name to a letter, along with other community leaders, expressing their sadness and shock that child abuse gangs have…
We need to focus on religious literacy – before it’s too late
"For religion to be taken seriously there needs to be an improvement in religious literacy across the media," wrote the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby last year. The context was…
Félicitations, President Macron – Vive la Faux Révolution!
As the victorious President-elect Emmanuel Macron appeared in front of Le Louvre to address the Fifth Republic, it was conspicuously to the strains of Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy' – the…
Integration tsar Dame Louise Casey has a problem with ‘religious conservatism’
In 2013 Dame Louise Casey was named by BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour as one of the Top 100 most powerful women in the UK. She was duly appointed by…
Ukip would be safe, safer and safest with Suzanne Evans as leader
Ukip is about to choose a(nother) new leader. Will it be Suzanne Evans or Paul Nuttall? That's the choice (we can safely discount John Rees-Evans for.. all.. sorts.. of.. reasons..).…
Church denounces Austria’s ‘far-right’ Norbert Hofer for campaign poster invoking God
Norbert Hofer is the presidential hopeful of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) in the forthcoming election (which is being re-run in December owing to previous electoral irregularities). The Freedom…
Inadequate Christian schools named and shamed; inadequate Muslim school.. censored
When the Durham Free School and Grindon Hall Christian School were excoriated by Ofsted last year for a raft of educational deficiencies (not least of which was failing to promote…
Do we really need a faith minister for “fairies, goblins and imaginary friends”?
We live in an age of ever-increasing secularity, in which religious practice must be half-hidden and religious conviction often-denied. You have to excavate quite deep to discover the moral sources…
Chobham Academy makes Islamic religious observance mandatory for pupils of all faiths
According to Ofsted, Chobham Academy in the London Borough of Newham is an outstanding school. It is important to begin with that observation, because the school's leaders, governors and sponsor…
Labour Friends of Palestine host Holocaust denier at Party Conference
Politics endangers the soul. Where there was once principle and conviction, there is compromise and obfuscation. Doctrine adapts and morality is murky. Truth is abstracted, or swallowed in bitterness.…
White trash? Court rules that white girls are worth less than Asians
Paedophilia, molestation, rape, grooming, 'white trash'.. Stories abound of the gangs of Asian (usually Pakistani) men preying on young white girls, believing them to be somehow worth less than…
A National Register of Faith Leaders? Government plans to vet all ministers of religion
There was an odd article in the Telegraph last week. Odd because the headline, photograph and content didn't quite cohere. Andrew Gilligan has apparently got hold of a leaked…