Is Britain Becoming a Christianophobic Country

Kicked ‘like a football’ were the words used by a Pakistani Christian to describe a brutal assault that left him unconscious outside a restaurant in Derby last month. The victim, Tajamal Amar, claims Muslim men singled him out for offence he’d caused by displaying a cross and two large red poppies on his car, and for being a Kaffir – a derogatory term for non-Muslims. As it happens, the attack occurred towards the end of National Hate Crime Awareness Week, and has been recorded as a hate crime. The British Pakistani Christian Association, a group who’ve been supporting Amar, inform me his wife and daughter have been moved to a new location; he remains in hospital. But is his case symptomatic of a broader anti-Christian sentiment brewing in Britain?

Persecution of Christians in Pakistan (from where Amar was forced to flee), the Middle East, China, Nigeria and Modi’s India is well documented. Isis has committed genocide in Iraq and Syria, edging Christianity towards extinction. The bloodletting of Egypt’s Copts continues. In Pakistan, blasphemy laws are enforced, as in the cause célèbre of Asia Bibi, who remains languishing on death row. But when the BBC asks whether it’s ‘inadvisable’ to display poppies or hang a crucifix from your rear view mirror – here in Britain – it makes it harder to ignore the echoes of intolerance reverberating in our midst. While liberals and interfaith interlocutors struggle to have honest conversations about doctrinally motived hate, the truth is people like Amar aren’t alone.

Last November, Nissar Hussain a Christian convert (from Islam) was forced to leave his Bradford home under armed police escort following years of persecution. His terrible ordeal culminated in 2015, with a sickening assault outside his family home (captured on CCTV) by two hooded thugs, one brandishing a pickaxe handle. Hussain suffered a shattered kneecap and broken hand. A softly spoken and intelligent man – Hussain tells me he suffers from chronic post-traumatic stress disorder and feels betrayed by both politicians and Anglican leaders. Apostates like Hussain are of course particularly vulnerable, because Islamists believe it’s their God given duty to kill them. But contempt for Christianity comes from many quarters, not just Islamists.

In fact, the government’s hate crime action plan from last year, Action Against Hate, points to the chilling case of a Christian teenager who faced physical abuse and a mock crucifixion by his coworkers. When Belfast bakers Ashers refused to make a cake with the slogan ‘support gay marriage’, they were subjected to arson and death threats by gay rights extremists. Is this not Christianophobia?

Following the jihadist murder of Father Jacques Hamal in France last year, the Home Office released a £2.4 million fund to enhance security for places of worship. Of the applicants there were 225 churches, 36 mosques, 11 gudwaras and three other places of worship (funding for synagogues is separate). Remarkably, many churches that bid successfully used funds to protect themselves from Satanists and witches. A middle-aged vicar I spoke with from South West England told me how a witch had cursed him in the expectation he’d ‘drop dead’. The drawing of pentagrams on the church’s walls was a regular occurrence. If he’d chosen to tell the police, I suppose a curse could be classified as hate crime.

But how big is the problem? I’ve had access to a fascinating response to freedom of information requests to 25 UK police forces (from 2014) by think tank Parliament Street. This unearthed 165 or so incidents affecting Britain’s clergy between 2008-13. Incidents range from robbery, assaults like grievous bodily harm (GBH), actual bodily harm (ABH), through to obsessive stalkers, and bites from dogs, and even humans. A record relating to an incident in Hertfordshire shockingly reads: ‘Offender approached the Injured Party and bit fingers.’ Serving the Son of God has its risks. However, complaints of Christianophobia are thin on the ground, despite media and politicians showing an indifference to Christian suffering.

Home Office statistics from last year on religious hate crimes in England, Wales and Northern Ireland indicate there were 316 incidents (out of a total of 4213) affecting Christians between March 2015 and March 2016. Organisations like National Churchwatch who describe themselves as a ‘leading organisation for security and advice in the Christian sector’, believe anti-Christian hate crime is significantly under-reported. Director Nick Tolson previously sat on a Home Office panel awarding security grants to places of worship. He said that, unlike anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, anti-Christian hate is predominantly a phenomenon seen in rural Britain, rather than in urban areas. Tolson, a former police officer told me, ‘National Churchwatch is working with True Vision to run four seminars around the country to tackle anti-Christian hate crime. The seminars will involve talking with clergy about how to keep safe and how to deal with crime should it occur.’

His organisation is collaborating with academics from Royal Holloway, University of London in developing a survey aimed at clergy from the Church of England, Church of Wales and the Roman Catholic Church. A snapshot into the sorts of crimes clergy experience, and if the context is anti-Christian, will no doubt help inform policy makers moving forwards.

Meanwhile, the investigation into Amar’s case continues and two men have been interviewed in connection with the assault on suspicion of causing GBH. It’s sobering to think that someone who fled religious persecution overseas now feels unsafe in Britain.

Source

— ‘Write Letter To Family About Converting To Islam‘: Furious stepfather refuses to let his stepdaughter, 12, complete her homework after she is asked to pen them a note about becoming a Muslim

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2015: ‘Intolerant Liberals’ Get Surprise Message in Times Square

 

When the famous ball drops on New Year’s Eve in New York City’s Times Square, a message will be there to remind “our intolerant liberal friends” about the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.

Answers in Genesis, the Christian ministry best known for operating the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, announced it is purchasing a recurring, 15-second spot on a video billboard at 46th and Broadway to publicly “thank God for freedom.”

“The :15 digital board will remind Americans of the religious freedoms they enjoy – whether they hold to the worldviews of Christianity, atheism, Judaism [or] other belief systems – and must be defended,” the ministry stated. “In addition, the Cross of Christ will be prominently displayed.”

The 15-second ad states, “To all our intolerant liberal friends: Thank God for freedom. Brought to you by AnswersInGenesis.org and the First Amendment.”

Answers in Genesis, or AiG, explains the digital ad will air for seven minutes per hour each day, Dec. 30-Jan. 1, including during the final minutes of 2014. The ministry expects about three million impressions will be totaled at Times Square over the three days, with millions more potentially spotting the advertisement when the famous ball-drop ceremony is televised New Year’s Eve.

Stated Ken Ham, AiG president, “I am thrilled that the Cross of Christ will be seen in the most-watched place in the world on this day.”

“The latest billboard campaign by AiG is helping draw attention to religious liberties under assault in America,” the organization asserts. “The efforts by secularist groups to remove Crosses, Nativity scenes and Ten Commandments displays from public places –and attacks on AiG’s Ark Encounter project – are intensifying. The need for Christian groups and churches to preserve their First Amendment rights has never been greater.”

“The nation’s Founding Founders predicted that a future government would be tempted to infringe on religious liberties,” Ham stated. “That’s why their very first amendment was to establish a safeguard for religious expression, as they inserted the ‘free exercise clause’ for religion for the new nation. Sadly, that freedom is being chipped away today by atheists and other secularists.”

Source

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Atheist Group to Distribute Pamphlets in Schools of Cartoon Bible Sexually Assaulting Woman

“But that is how society begins to fall apart. But these creatures would be the first to holler for help when they are in need and who comes to their rescue but those who believe. Remember the blacks would still be in slavery if it were not for believers. It wasn’t the atheists who were .the first abolitionists, It wasn’t the atheists ho hid the Jews from the Nazis. It wasn’t the atheists who went over to help the Ebola victims. They contribute nothing to this world. They are empty people who only believe in themselves. Which is fine as long as they leave believers alone.”

An atheist group is planning to distribute a pamphlet in several Florida public high schools that depicts an illustration of a cartoon Bible sexually assaulting a young woman.

According to a report by Brittany Hughes at CNSNews.com, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) plans to hand out a pamphlet entitled “An X-Rated Book: Sex and Obscenity in the Bible,” with a front cover that is illustrated with an animated Bible with arms, legs, salacious facial expression, and salivating mouth, with its hand aggressively extended up the dress of a screaming woman, who is attempting to run away from it.

On its website, FFRF states that its free speech lawsuit filed last year against the Orange County School District was dismissed by Judge Kendall Sharp of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, since the school district had agreed to allow FFRF to distribute all the literature it had initially prohibited. FFRF says it filed a free speech suit after the school district allowed an evangelical Christian group to distribute Bibles.

“This is a victory. The court has acknowledged that the school district is allowing all the materials that were initially prohibited,” said Dan Barker, FFRF co-president. “We disagree with how the court and the school district chose to handle this clear-cut discrimination, so we’re planning to appeal on some issues, but overall, it’s a win.”

In its motion to dismiss the case, the U.S. District Court did agree, however, with a previous Florida court ruling relating to materials outside groups may distribute in public schools.

“Indeed, Defendant may lawfully prohibit outside groups from distributing materials that are not appropriate for distribution in a school setting with the aim of controlling student conduct in the schools,” said the court. “This includes dissemination of content that is sexually explicit, indecent, lewd, or offensive in [sic] such would ‘undermine the school’s basic educational mission.’”

The memo, dated April 22, 2013, and referencing “passive distribution of atheist materials,” provided the following list of “approved materials” that FFRF and Central Florida Freethought Community (CFFC), FFRF’s local chapter, may “passively distribute” on May 2, 2013, in schools:

1. The Age of Reason
2. What They Said About Religion
3. Ten Common Myths About Atheists
4. What is Wrong with the Ten Commandments?
5. What is an Atheist?
6. Nontheistic Students in Your School
7. Humanist of the Year Award

The memo also stated, “NO OTHER MATERIALS MAY BE DISTRIBUTED.”

High school principals are instructed in the memo, “You must have a member of your staff ensure that only the materials identified above are on the tables to be passively distributed.”

Continue reading the Comments

• Real anti-Christian bigotry, fake company
• Trojan Horse rules ‘stop us being Christian school’
• Churches targeted in new wave of attacks
• Godless millennials could end the political power of the religious right (Notice the anti-christian-agenda of “the Guardian”)

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British Government: Christians Have No Right To Wear Cross At Work

In a highly significant move, ministers will fight a case at the European Court of Human Rights in which two British women will seek to establish their right to display the cross.

It is the first time that the Government has been forced to state whether it backs the right of Christians to wear the symbol at work.

A document seen by The Sunday Telegraph discloses that ministers will argue that because it is not a “requirement” of the Christian faith, employers can ban the wearing of the cross and sack workers who insist on doing so.

Continue reading…

 

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Anti-Christian Britain — A Disturbing Trend Emerging

Last month a Christian owner of a Café where bible verses were being displayed on television screens was told (quite incorrectly) by police that he was breaking the law.

The fact that British police would consider the displaying of Christian scripture an illegal offence is a concerning indication of the mentality that British society has come to adopt towards all things Christian.

For anyone who follows the British media’s reporting of American politics, the continuous attempt to run down certain American politicians on account of their faith rather than engaging with their politics has now become a rather boring familiarity.

Bush and Palin are crazed evangelical fundamentalists we are forever being told, oh yawn, is this kind of cheap and lazy defamation really what we have to make do with for journalism?

Yet what is far more concerning is what is happening to Christians here in our own country. It is only when one steps back and takes an overview of the litany of cases where Christians have been discriminated against for their religious convictions, that it is possible to appreciate what resembles a sustained assault against the Christian communities in Britain.

Whether it is the case of the nurse who was suspended for offering to pray for a patient, the van driver who faced disciplinary action if he refused to remove a palm cross from his dashboard, the couple who were prohibited from fostering because of their Christian beliefs or the supply teacher who was dismissed when she mentioned praying for a child’s family. The list goes on and on.

Then there are the truly bizarre cases of town councils choosing not to put up their annual display of Christmas decorations or the BBC dropping the use of the terms BC and AD because of their Christian connotations.

It is as if there is a systematic effort to extrapolate British society from its Christian heritage and the values that have for centuries served as a basis for British culture and identity. Those who have been responsible for these moves have often advocated for them on the grounds of creating a more secular and therefore a supposedly more inclusive and pluralistic society for everyone.

Yet it is hard to escape the fact that it has often been the very same people who have promoted secular values when it has come to driving out Christian aspects of public life, who have simultaneously lent their support for the establishment of a parallel religious legal system in the form of Sharia law courts.

Indeed there seems to be a curious disparity here.

How is it that the media has often lambasted Christian individuals who have found themselves dismissed from work or even in court on account of their views on sexuality and yet concurrent to this we hear so relatively little about those hard-line Islamic preachers who have openly preached hate over issues of gender and homosexuality, issues that the liberal press claims to champion.

At our universities these speakers are often provided with an open platform on the grounds of free speech and freedom of religious expression. Those were the kind of arguments that many in the British media were at pains to stress when discussing the ground zero mosque in Manhattan. And while our media obsessed over supporting the building of one mosque in America, it all but ignored the burning down of countless churches elsewhere in the world, not to mention the massacring of Coptic Christians in their Churches in Egypt or the murder of Iraqi Christians in their places of worship there.

Yet this is symptomatic of a growing double standard. We all remember the crowds who turned out for the protest at the Pope rally last year but where were the demonstrations against the then Mayor Ken Livingstone sponsoring the visit to London by the extremist cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi?

The reality now seems to be that in Britain, Christians are treated by entirely different standards to that thought appropriate for other religious groups. It is as if Christians and their faith have become fair game. But it should not be left to Christians to campaign on this issue alone.

As much as I am not a Christian, it still seems clear that all of us who value the rights and freedoms afforded by a liberal democracy should ensure that there is fair treatment for Christians in Britain.

More than that, we as a society need to recognize that Christianity has played a major and for the most part extremely positive role, in forming our nation’s history and national identity.

Those who cannot bring themselves to understand this will naturally also prove unable to appreciate what it means to actually be British and our society will continue to suffer from the chronic loss of values and any sense of purpose that currently seems to be at the heart of so many of the social challenges that we now face.

Source: Huffingtonpost, posted: 11/10/11

BBC is anti-Christian and ageist, viewer survey finds

The BBC uses “derogatory stereotypes” to portray Christians while marginalising older women, according to the corporation’s own research.

Viewers and staff expressed concerns about “tokenism” and diversity “box-ticking” and warned that positive discrimination was skewing recruitment.

Many people believe the corporation retains a politically Left-wing or “liberal bias” and that religions other than Christianity were sometimes better represented, according to they survey.

The report based on the poll results, obtained by the Daily Mail, concluded: “In terms of religion, there were many who perceived the BBC to be anti-Christian and as such misrepresenting Christianity.”

It added: “Christians are specifically mentioned as being badly treated, with a suggestion that more minority religions are better represented despite Christianity being the most widely observed religion within Britain.”

One respondent was quoted as saying: “As a Christian I find that the BBC’s representation of Christianity is mainly inaccurate, portraying incorrect, often derogatory stereotypes.”

Another added: “Seldom do we find a Christian portrayed in drama, and when we do, it is usually a “weak” person or a “bigot”.”

The BBC generated blasphemy protests from Christian groups in 2005 when it aired Jerry Springer: The Opera, which became one of the most complained about shows in television history.

A BBC spokesman said: “We have strict editorial guidelines on impartiality, including religious perspectives, and Christian programming forms the majority and the cornerstone of our religion and ethical output.”

Source: The Telegraph

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