There will be a witness for Meriam Ibrahim outside the Sudanese Embassy from 2pm to 4pm on Friday 6th June 2014.
This is despite false reports of Meriam’s imminent release (see below).
The address of the Sudanese Embassy is 3 Cleveland Row, St. James, London SW1A 1DD(Check the map by clicking on the postcode – it opens in a new window or link automatically).
The nearest tube is Green Park. Turn right out of the station and walk down St James’ St to Cleveland Row. Note that the Embassy is within the congestion charge zone, so best come by tube or bus.
Meriam Ibrahim is the Christian Sudanese doctor sentenced to death and to 100 lashes for apostasy, that is converting from Islam to Christianity, and for adultery, that is marrying a man who is not a Muslim. Despite Meriam being brought up by her mother as a Christian, she counts as Muslim according to Sudanese law because her father was Muslim.
The Sudanese Embassy in Cleveland Row
Meriam has just given birth to a daughter in prison and has a 2-year-old son by her husband, Daniel Wani. The Court says she must stay in prison for two years to nurse her baby and will then be executed. It is not know when the flogging is scheduled.
The Sudan court decision has at last been condemned by all UK political leaders, but to our knowledge, no-one has yet taken a protest to the Embassy itself. To spare a few hours on a Friday afternoon will be the least we can do.
But Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers condemned Mr McConnell’s remarks. She said: ‘It’s a matter for the first minister how he responds to these remarks – people obviously have different perspectives. For myself, I do condemn the remarks made by Pastor McConnell and don’t believe they are justified – Islam is a peaceful religion’.
So how are the Sudanese courts and rulers, and I am confident any survey would find the population of Sudan in support of them, exhibiting the peaceful aspects of this ‘peaceful religion’? Perhaps you could ask your MP to ask her that question.
It would be interesting to know how Muslims in the UK view the death sentence on Meriam Ibrahim. It is hard to find any comment, let alone condemnation, about her treatment from the Muslim Council of Britain or any other British Muslim group.
The Sudanese Embassy website has an article opposing ‘Islamophobia’. Acts such as the brutal sentence passed by Sudan on Meriam Ibrahim only fuel British people’s misgivings about Islam.
The Ambassador of the Republic of the Sudan to United Kingdom and Ireland is His Excellency Abdullahi H A El Azreg.
The UK indirectly gives aid to Sudan. Your MP may be contacted via the Parliament Website.
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Immigration levels are more than twice what David Cameron projected for the last year.
According to an official report released Thursday, immigration into Britain increased by 27% last year.
In fact, net immigration is currently twice Mr Cameron’s target goal of reducing immigration to “tens of thousands.” The results show that a net total of 201,000 EU citizens immigrated to the UK, as compared to the 158,000 immigrants last year.
The already strained relationship between the EU and Britain has been further weakened by these findings, with many people believing that immigration policy will not changeunless Britain secedes from the EU.
In 2013, a total of 526,000 people moved to the UK and 314,000 left, which resulted in the net figure of 212,000 immigrants. This is an increase from the 177,000 immigrants in 2012.
The ONS report further shows that the total number of people coming into the UK increased 5%, with 43,000 more EU citizens and 11,000 fewer non-EU citizens arriving. According to the Office for National Statistics, 125,000 of those immigrants came to find work, up from 95,000 in 2012.
In an Express report, Alan Murad, Deputy Campaign Manager of ‘Get Britain Out’ warned:
‘These figures demonstrate that while we remain in the EU we are completely powerless to control immigration to Britain. Unless Britain leave the EU the Government will continue to have no say on the hundreds of thousands of migrants entering the UK from EU countries every year. This is putting enormous pressure on our public services, presents a real threat to British jobs and is a major risk to our economic recovery.’
UKIP leader Nigel Farage condemnedDavid Cameron for “breaking a solemn promise to the British people to get net annual immigration down to the tens of thousands.” Mr. Farage further commented on immigration, which he called “one of the most important political issues,” saying that Mr Cameron “refuses to take back control of our borders in respect of more than 400 million people from more than two dozen countries on continental Europe.”
Mr Cameron recently “launched a full-blown attack” against Farage, saying that Farage is essentially an elite citizen who seeks to “‘destroy the Conservative party.'”
In addition to the changes mentioned above, there was a 150 percent increase in people coming from Romania and Bulgaria into the UK, even before work restrictions were lifted in January. The numbers increased from just 9,000 in 2012 to 23,000 in 2013. Approximately 70 percent of these immigrants came to find work.
Other increases came from countries like Poland (from 11,000 to 102,000), Italy (from 9,000 to 42,000), and Bulgaria (from 7,000 to 18,000).
Chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee Keith Vaz said: “Controlling EU migration is impossible without reform. It is clear that the Government’s aim is unrealistic and unachievable. The Government should drop its target now.”
Interestingly, reports in The Telegraph and BBC News UK say that net migration remains unchanged at 212,000 per quarter, although that number is still twice that of the Government’s target of less than 100,000 immigrants a year.
However, later on in the BBC News article, the reporter mentions the same figures as the other articles: 201,000 EU citizens migrated to the UK as long-term citizens, a statistical increase of 43,000 over the previous year. How does net migration remain the same if it increased by 43,000 people? Apparently the “movements of other categories of people” cancelled this effect, causing the net migration numbers to remain unchanged.
Mr Cameron is now drawing up new immigration laws to counteract UKIP and ameliorate anger over this rise in EU immigrants moving to Britain.
Not even David Cameron can reduce the number of immigrants to Britain, as long as immigration laws in the EU remain unchanged.
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Archbishop Justin Welby still advocates heterosexual marriage in principle.
Archbishop Welby is still opposed to same-sex “marriage” in principle, despite saying that the new gay marriage law is “great”
His comments were made last week in an interview with PinkNews, where he said that the Church of England must “accept…that the same-sex marriage act is law, and that it’s right and proper, it’s the law of the land, and that’s great.”
Given the ambiguous nature of Welby’s statements, the Church of England was forced to re-affirm its official position. The Archbishop’s spokesperson declaredthat Welby was only referring to Parliament’s right to change the law when he said that it was “great.” The spokesperson affirmed that Welby accepts Parliament’s powers and the Church should demonstrate Christ’s love for everyone.
Welby’s office explainedthat the Archbishop “remains opposed both to gay marriage and homophobia.”
Welby voted against the Same-Sex Marriage Act last year on the grounds that it could potentially weaken the family and society. He apparently still holds true to these beliefs, the Telegraph reported, even though his recent statements have lent themselves to a variety of interpretations.
Archbishop Welby’s statements come just two days after he “offered an olive branch to the gay community” by publishing rules that say Church of England schools must teach students to “revere” and “honor” homosexuals in an effort to combat homophobic bullying.
These new rules describe the gay lifestyle as “less than God’s ideal,” which one Telegraph reporter called a “euphemism for sin.” Despite being opposed to homosexuality, Welby says those beliefs do not justify bullying or discrimination against gay individuals.
According to these rules, all CofE primary schools must teach children that homosexuality is a “basic fact of people’s lives.” These schools must also implement policies to recognize the needs of transgender students. Secondary school children that come out must be given “unequivocal support” from chaplains and instructors, as well as information regarding their new-found “identity.” The Church of England rules also state that children must be taught to accept that homosexuality is a reality and a normal part of society.
The Archbishop has added that “the love of Christ is universal for all people irrespective of who they are and the Church has to find a way to express that.”
While not disputing God’s love for all people, the church has a responsibility to tell its members what is right and wrong according to the Bible, not to follow social norms. While it is clearly wrong to bully homosexuals, the way to solve the problem is not to become more tolerant of sin (i.e., telling CofE school children that it’s OK to be gay).
As the Church of England leads increasingly towards tolerance instead of confrontation, many are wondering how long the church can maintain its official stance on homosexuality. As one reporter put it: “How can you tell 11-year-olds that it is OK to be gay…but at the same time, theologically, to say that being gay is wrong?”
The solution is to differentiate between sin and the sinner, and teach children how to love their neighbor while still holding true to the Bible. Let us pray that non-Christians will know us by our fruits (Matt. 7:20). We must learn to love our neighbors while not simultaneously condoning sin. Homosexuality is a reality in society but it does not have to become a reality within the Church of England.
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They say his testimony in the case brought by one Caleb Orozco in an attempt to overturn Belize’s anti-sodomy law has ‘destroyed their trust in him’. The sub-text is that they all want Jamaica, Belize and other Caribbean Commonwealth members to legalise sodomy.
In his testimony, Professor Bain said that the risk of contracting HIV is significantly higher among men who have sex with men (MSM). He said this was true for Belize, as well as other countries, including those that have repealed the law that criminalises ‘anal sex’.
Responsibility to assess behaviours
According to Bain, some public health practitioners and agencies “have hypothesised that decriminalising the practice of anal intercourse among consenting adults would lead to a reduction in the incidence rate of HIV infections among MSM”. However, he said that to date, published data have not substantiated that hypothesis.
“As a physician and public health practitioner, one of my responsibilities is to assess behaviours for their impact on health and well-being,” Professor Bain said in his written testimony.
“When something is beneficial, such as exercise, good nutrition, or adequate sleep, it is my duty to recommend it. Likewise, when something is harmful, such as smoking, overeating, alcohol or drug abuse, and unsafe sexual behaviour, it is my duty to discourage it. Together with promoting individual responsibility, it is clear that environments that enable individuals to make and practice safe and healthy choices must be provided at family, community and governmental levels,” he said.
Bain added that another of his responsibilities as a public health practitioner is to assess the cost of behaviour, not just to the individual ‘actor’ but also to the community. “There are some private behaviours, either carried out by individuals or between consenting adults, that may either be helpful or of little adverse consequence to other persons in the community,” he said.
“Behaviours that are helpful to individuals and to the community are to be encouraged. On the other hand, there are instances in which private behaviours result in considerable public cost due to illness, with accompanying loss of productivity and social disruption and the prospect of premature death. The public cost of these private behaviours must be acknowledged and actively reckoned with,” Bain argued.
“The risk to MSM and their intimate sexual partners is not just to their physical health. The adverse physical and physiological consequences of STIs (including HIV) in MSM create significant and avoidable financial costs to individuals, households and governments. These important considerations must be included when considering whether to give public approval to risky behaviours such as are often practised by MSM,” Bain stated.
HAART AIDS Treatment costs UK NHS £1.5bn / year
Such a view is so obviously true as to seem uncontroversial in normal times. Since Highly-Active Anti-Retroviral Treatment (HAART) became available for those with HIV in the UK, ‘gay’ men have thrown responsible behaviour, caution (and their condoms) to the wind. The number of people living with HIV and having HAART treatment was almost 78,000 in 2012 and is likely to be over 85,000 today in 2014. Each one costs the Health Service £18,000 per year, according to AVERT. The total cost of HAART treatment is therefore £1,500,000,000 (£1.5 billion) per year and rising.
But Professor Bain’s opinion prompted the lobby groups to write to UWI Vice-Chancellor Professor Nigel Harris expressing displeasure with Bain’s testimony and asking for his dismissal. They did not claim that what he said was untrue, only that they had ‘lost confidence’ in him. Prof Harris is now considering the matter. The churches in Jamaica have rallied behind Professor Bain, but we can be sure that American universities with educational and financial links to UWI will be lobbying Professor Harris incessantly to try to force him to sack the honest Professor.
The condemnation of Professor Bain is being led by the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition, a well-funded grant-giving outfit with a huge board of directors seeking to advance the cause of street-children, drug-users, prostitutes and, of course, homosexuals. The CVC has wide international connections to groups advancing the gay cause, including to UNAIDS. We have so far been unable to discover who funds CVC, but wealthy US groups like the Ford Foundation and Arcus are likely culprits.
Government and University figures attend Caribbean pro-homosexual meetings
Astonishingly, in a region where only the Bahamas has decriminalised sodomy, pro-homosexual advocacy meetings are regularly held across the Caribbean, and are routinely attended by government ministers or representatives of UWI.
An estimated 600 Belizeans turned out in San Ignacio on July 10, 2013 to oppose the inclusion of ‘sexual orientation’ in the country’s gender policy.
The Rt Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas, St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister and Chair of the Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV and AIDS, opened the ‘Caribbean Consultation on Justice for All and Human Rights Agenda’, in Kingston, Jamaica, in April 2014. Naturally, Dr. Carolyn Gomes, Executive Director of the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition, attended. Prof. Archibald McDonald, Vice Principal of the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies called for ‘social inclusion’ of homosexuals and an ‘end to stigma’. The notorious campaigning Australian homosexual activist, Justice Michael Kirby, delivered the keynote address. The Consultation was coordinated by UNAIDS, which one might expect, but also, astoundingly, by the Government of Jamaica and the University of the West Indies.
By the grace of God, Caribbean churches are beginning to respond. Church leaders in Jamaica rallied to defend their island’s anti-sodomy law last year and have also given strong support to Professor Bain, a committed Christian. In Central America Belize Action, led by the courageous Pastor Scott Stirm, is fighting a superb campaign against pro-sodomy initiatives from the Belize government which seems to have given up all hope that the country’s courts will uphold the law in the Orozco case.
Section 53 of Belize’s criminal code states that “every person who has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any person or animal shall be liable to imprisonment for 10 years”.
Please pray for Professor Brendan Bain to know the peace and strength of Christ at this time and for the Church across the Caribbean to stand firm holding their governments to account as ministers of God.
Romans 13:3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: 4 For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
Isaiah 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! 21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
Proverbs 14:34 Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.
Psalm 12:8 The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.
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Tom Neuwirth, appearing in a diamante dress as ‘Conchita Wurst’, sang the Austrian entry ‘Rise like a Phoenix‘. ‘Conchita’ means ‘little shell’ in Spanish but is also Spanish vulgar slang for a part of the female anatomy. A ‘Wurst’ is a German sausage. The German expression “es ist wurst” means “it doesn’t matter”, which sentiment Neuwirth applies to his lifestyle.
Whether or not other countries appreciated his innuendo-laden name, the Austrian took the Eurovision crown in Copenhagen with 290 points compared to 238 points for runner-up the Netherlands and then delivered a politicised speech.
The song came first, with 12 points awarded, in Belgium, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Voting in most countries was a mixture of a five-man expert ‘jury’ and a popular text vote. Across Europe, the popular vote was more inclined towards Austria than the expert panels. Only Armenia, Belarus, Poland and San Marino awarded Neuwirth ‘nul points’.
In Norway, two judges, both singers themselves, put the song in seventh place, possibly thinking some work on intonation would not come amiss, while two others, music journalists, awarded it first place. The fifth – a Muslim – placed it seventeenth, costing the Austrians two points. It is fair to say that the judges who placed it first and seventeenth understood what was going on. So, probably, did the Finnish, where each judge and the people put ‘Rise like a Phoenix’ in first place. But Slovenia? (All voting for Austria below.)
During the voting, any points awarded to Russia were booed, either because of the Ukrainian crisis or because of the Russian Federation’s opposition to homosexuality. As Ukraine and Russia did actually award each other some points, it was probably the latter. However, even that politicisation paled into insignificance as the Austrian entry settled at the top of the leader board.
After the voting, a triumphant Neuwirth said the win was a victory for “all people who believe in the future of peace and love and tolerance,” crying for the cameras. Promptly ditching peace, love and tolerance he raged in conclusion: “We are unity, and we are unstoppable!” VIDEO
When asked what he would tell Russian President Vladimir Putin, who last year signed a law banning “gay propaganda”, Neuwirth replied: “I don’t know if he’s watching, but if so, I’ve made clear, we’re unstoppable.”
The song’s chorus spoke of rising from the ashes. (Full lyrics here.) Sodom was of course destroyed by fire, and In mythology, a phoenix is an immortal bird that, when it dies, bursts into flames and is reborn from its own ashes. The chorus:
Rise like a phoenix
Out of the ashes
Seeking rather than vengeance
Retribution
You were warned
Once I’m transformed
Once I’m reborn
You know I will rise like a phoenix
But you’re my flame
Whatever the last line means, both the chorus and Neuwirth’s triumphalism after his win remind us of the aspirational essay of ‘gay revolutionary’ Michael Swift which appeared in a February 1987 edition of ‘Gay Community News’ in Australia. ‘All laws banning homosexual activity will be revoked … legislation will be passed which engenders love between men … the museums of the world will be filled only with paintings of graceful, naked lads … the family unit will be abolished … churches who condemn us will be closed … one of the major requirements for a position of power in the new society of homoeroticism will be indulgence in the Greek passion … We shall be victorious … tremble, hetero swine,’ he ranted.
In Sodom, ‘all the men of the city’ surrounded Lot’s house demanding carnal knowledge of his guests. It is highly unlikely that all the men of Sodom were homosexual, but there was clearly overwhelming acceptance of the vice of sodomy among both people and rulers of Sodom. It appears that Europe, particularly Western Europe, is farther down the road to Sodom that many of us might have thought – or dreaded.
Psalm 12:8 The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.
(The voting appears arcane, but in case you are wondering, if the jury and the voters violently disagree which song should be first, the song which they both put second – or even third – can end up first when the votes are combined – as happened in Belgium, Italy, Spain and the UK.)
Members of the jury of the United Kingdom
J1 Caroline Vanessa Grant
Date of birth: 17 August 1965
Profession: Vocal coach/TV Presenter/Public Speaker
Carrie Grant is one of the best known vocal coaches in the United Kingdom. Her impressive client list includes Take That, The Spice Girls and The Saturdays. Carrie also represented the UK in The Eurovision Song Contest in 1983 as part of the trio Sweet Dr
J2 Stephen Allen
Date of birth: 4 September 1965
Profession: Music producer, keyboard player, musical director, arranger
Steve Allen has over 35 years’ experience within the music industry having written, produced and arranged for acts such as The Trammps, The Temptations and Eurovision stars Katrina And The Waves.
J3 Candice McKenzie
Date of birth: 7 June 1982
Profession: DJ and Event Organiser
Candice McKenzie is an established DJ from London and recipient of two BEFFTA awards, Female DJ of the Year 2009 & DJ of the Year 2010. Candice has DJ’d for top brands and all over Europe.
J4 Gus Gowland
Date of birth: 31 July 1981
Profession: Writer / Actor / Composer
Gus Gowland is a writer and actor from London, UK. Gus has written a brand new musical, Pieces of String directed by Craig Revel Horwood which will hit theatres in October 2014.
J5 Laura Wright
Date of birth: 17 June 1990
Profession: Mezzo soprano signed to Decca, Universal
Laura Wright is a Mezzo Soprano. At the age of 15, Wright won the BBC Radio 2 Chorister of the Year award for female voice. Laura has sold over one million records so far and in 2010 Laura was nominated for a Classical Brit Award.
Members of the jury of Norway
J1 Ahmed Fawad Ashraf
Date of birth: 29 November 1984
Gender: Male
Profession: Music and culture journalist
Works as a culture and Music journalist for Norwegian Broad sheet newspaper Aftenposten.
J2 Jonas Brenna
Date of birth: 17 June 1981
Gender: Male
Profession: Head of publishing
Jonas Brenna is a producer With Aftenposten-tv, the web page of Aftenposten.
J3 Jan Thomas Holmlund
Date of birth: 9 February 1983
Gender: Male
Profession: Entertainment Journalist
Jan Thomas Works for one of Norway’s largest tabloid newspapers, Dagbladet and has covered ESC on site several years.
J4 Rannveig Sundelin
Date of birth: 6 February 1976
Gender: Female
Profession: Vocalist
Rannveig is the singer in a big brass band and is also the spokesperson against Racism for the Soccer Club Vålerenga.
J5 Monica Harmonica Johansen
Date of birth: 11 October 1979
Gender: Female
Profession: Artist, songwriter and DJ
Monica, or Miss Harmonika aka Minnie Oh, is a well known artist, DJ and songwriter in Norway.
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The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Justin Welby, has joined the fray over David Cameron’s Easter message by rebuffing the atheists who tried to say Britian is not a Christian country.
Defending Church of England faith schools in the context of the Muslim takeover of schools in Birmingham, Archbishop Welby said Christian faith was reflected in the “whole way we approach our national life”.
Archbishop Welby later wrote in his blog that it was a “historical fact” that UK law, ethics and culture were based on its teachings and traditions.
Returning to the debate, Archbishop Welby said the UK’s “systems of justice and health, the way we value people, the basic way we look at the human being and the dignity of the human being, reflects the values of Jesus Christ”.
“We are a deeply Christian country in that way,” he added.
The Archbishop added that he did not agree with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s claim that the Church would be better able to serve its own interests and those of the country if it was disestablished.
Christian Voice applauds Archbishop Welby for his comments. We are committed to defend Britain’s Protestant Christian heritage and the establishment of a national church is part of our Christian identity.
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Gay Bishop Divorces: Mark Andrew (l) & Gene Robinson.
The Bishop who caused division in the American Episcopal Church by moving in with and then forming a civil partnership with a man has announced he is now ‘divorcing’ him, whatever that might mean in the circumstances.
In 1988 he set up house with one Mark Andrew and formed a civil partnership with him in 2008. Now Robinson is to end his partnership (which he remains convinced was a ‘marriage’) with Andrew, describing the parting as a ‘divorce.’
The Bible, just as it refers to marriage, only ever speaks of divorce or of ‘putting away’, in the context of man and wife, not man and whatever another man might wish to be called:
Gen 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Gen 2:23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. 24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
Deuteronomy 24:1 When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. 2 And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife.
The words of the Lord Jesus: Mark 10:6 But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. 7 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; 8 And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. 9 What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
Note that the Lord Jesus never said that man could not put asunder what God hath joined together, only that we should not. Happily, God never joined together Gene Robinson and Mark Andrew, so the question of whether man should or should not put them asunder does not arise.
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Tahir Alam, alleged “ringleader” of the Trojan Horse Plot of Muslims to take over secular schools, is also the co-author of the 72-page document revealing this strategy.
The purported Trojan Horse plot ‘ringleader’ co-wrote a 72-page plan in 2007 laying out his agenda for the Islamisation of state secular schools.
The blueprint set forth in Tahir Alam’s document closely resembles the changes that have recently been implemented in Birmingham schools. (Many of these changes have been documented in previous articles on our website, which you can read here and here.)
In his masterplan, Alam describes how schools must “take account of Muslim sensitivities and sensibilities with respect to sexual morality” and says that “girlfriend/boyfriend as well as homosexual relationships” were not allowed under Islamic teaching.
These plans were tangibly carried out when a boy and a girl in Year 11 were suspended for holding hands just weeks before exams. One staff member said that this has happened to several students in the same year.
Alam’s policies wanted “girls [to] be covered except for their hands and faces,” and called for gender segregation in school activities. Other activities banned include music that has immoral or “un-Islamic” lyrics, school plays, and dances.
Gender segregation has been a big issue. A Department of Education report discovered that girls at Park View had to sit at the back of the class. Former staff members revealed that female students complained that they were being treated unequally and were left out of in-class discussions. The agenda has also resulted in female staff members being “sidelined for years” according to a Telegraph Report.
Despite such actions, the Department of Education suggested giving Mr. Alam’s Park View Education Trust another Birmingham school to run while emergency inspections were happening at three other schools. However, this proposal has subsequently been cancelled.
In 2012, Park View manipulated the school inspection by bringing in a science teacher just for the two days inspectors were at the school. The former staff member said that the students at Park View are “just not getting the best…The Islamic ethos is overpowering and it’s dominating everything. The school has turned inwards and they’re just not preparing the kids for the wider world.”
As expected, Mr. Alam claims there is no plot. He is falling back on the popular trend of calling any anti-Muslim sentiments “Islamophobic,” and he is calling the investigations a “witch-hunt.”
Achmad da Costa, one of Alam’s close allies, conducted a special meeting in which he tried to rally local mosques to protest against the inspections.
Among the 25 schools currently under investigation, 18 have now been inspected by Ofsted. Park View will be one of at least 6 schools that Ofsted will rate as “inadequate for leadership and management.”
The church in Liushi, China, opened last year despite being frowned upon by the Communist Party. Christianity in China is growing at a phenomenal rate.
According to a report in The London Telegraph, Christianity is growing so rapidly in China that it is projected to be the “world’s most Christian nation” by 2030.
Churches have gradually been reopening since Chairman Mao’s death in 1976. This includes the 5,000-capacity Liushi church that opened last year, which housed thousands of worshipers who gathered on Easter Sunday.
This £8 million church features a 206-foot cross and has twice as much seating capacity as Westminster Abbey. It represents China’s rapid conversion from Communism to Christianity and its transformation to one of the largest Christian populations in the world.
Although China is still officially an atheist country, its population does not reflect that as much as it did previously. China currently has 1.3 billion citizens, and if current trends continue the country could soon have more Christians than any other nation, even if they will remain a minority.
Fenggang Yang, a professor of sociology at Purdue University, affirmed the above statements by predicting that China will be the “largest Christian country in the world very soon.” He said it could even happen by “less than a generation.”
Protestant Christians numbered one million in 1949, as opposed to the 58 million it has now. Professor Yang estimates that the Protestant Christian numbers will increase to approximately 160 million by the year 2025, putting China’s Christian population ahead of the United States, whose 159 million Protestant members are declining. By 2030 China’s Christian population would be more than 247 million people.
Many congregations have consented to Communist Party oversight in order to worship in their churches. However, millions of Christians worship illegally in underground “house churches” to avoid the “prying eyes of the Communist party.”
In an interesting “role reversal” China is now sending out missionaries of its own, even though it had often been the country receiving missionaries in the past. One underground church leader said that it is easier for China to send missionaries than it is for countries like Britain, South Korea, or America.
The Communist Party does not know quite what to make of it. There have been recent reports of government moves against one large Christian church, while a Roman Catholic shrine has been desecrated. But some leaders say that religious groups benefit society by providing social services and relieving moral crises.
Liushi’s preacher, Ms. Shi, carefully calls her church “patriotic,” and says that her church’s two missions are the gospel and serving their society. She said that “without God, people can do as they please.” She believes that Christianity offers moral stability in a society.
However, this rapid growth of Christianity might not come without its challenges. Despite China’s constitution guaranteeing citizens their right to practice “normal religious activities,” Christians are still closely watched by the government. The goal is to ensure that church services “do not diverge from what the [Communist] Party considers acceptable.”
The state, according to the unnamed house preacher, still wants the churches to preach in a Communist manner. In order to keep with this pro-Communist mindset, the Party “shunned” sections of the Bible that show people refusing to obey the king in order to obey God.
The church leader said that the Communists “do not trust the church, but they have to tolerate it…because the growth is there…they do not want the 70 million Christians to be their enemy.”
Many government leaders still believe that religion is a “sickness” that needs curing. Their overall fear is that Christianity will become an opposing political entity that might eventually overthrow their Communist system.
The Communist Party is at a loss as to why Christianity is growing so quickly. It is ironic that China is turning toward Christ as Britain is abandoning its faith. Let us pray that this growth of the Church in China will continue, and that it might spark new life in our church to stand strong amidst persecution.
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Jeremy Pemberton, left, and his long-time partner Laurence Cunnington, right, were married on Saturday.
Canon Jeremy Pemberton became the first gay priest to defy the Church of England’s ban on same-sex marriage.
Mr. Pemberton was aware of the Church of England’s disapproval, but proceeded to “marry” his long-time partner Laurence Cunnington earlier this month in front of friends and family.
Pemberton told The Mail on Sunday: “I love this man and I want to be married to him. That’s what I want. It is the same as anyone who wants to get married.”
Pemberton could face disciplinary action from the church.
Last month same-sex “marriages” were legalized in England and Wales, but the Church of England banned gay marriage for its clergy members because it goes against the church’s teaching that marriage is only between a man and a woman. Clergymen are not able to officiate at gay wedding ceremonies or to bless same-sex unions in church.
Pemberton told the church of his plans to marry before he carried out his wedding. The bishop of Lincoln, the Rt Rev Christopher Lowson, was informed by Pemberton himself that Pemberton planned to marry Cunnington. Lowson said that he and Pemberton had a meeting before the “marriage” took place, in which Lowson “explained the guidelines of the House of Bishops.”
In addition, Lowson explained that the Church of England will shortly begin discussing how it will respond to same-sex “marriage”.
This “marriage” does not only affect people in the UK. Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby suggested that by tolerating same-sex “marriage” within the church, Christians could be endangering the lives of other Christians in Africa.
Welby has personally seen a mass grave full of African Christians in Nigeria who were murdered because the citizens of Nigeria were afraid that Christians will force them to become homosexuals. In a country where homosexual acts are punishable with up to a 15-year prison sentence, the impact of a gay marriage within the church affects African Christians more severely than it does Christians in the UK.
Justin Welby, archbishop of Canterbury, has warned about the worldwide effect of the church accepting gay ‘marriage’
Pemberton, a divorced father of five and former parish priest, tweetedafter the wedding ceremony: “Thank you to all well-wishers. Nay-Sayers: we can talk another time maybe? Signing off for now—my husband gets my time.”
One author called this “marriage” a “test of strength” between liberals and conservatives in the Church of England.
All eyes are now on the church to see how it will respond. If the Church of England holds true to its traditional teaching on homosexual marriage, it will be holding true to the God’s teaching in the Bible but could face persecution through employment laws (Matthew 5:11-12).
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Park View Academy spent money on loudspeakers used to call students to Islamic prayers.
The initial investigation of an alleged “Islamic takeover plot” of a Birmingham school has widened to include 25 different schools.
When we first reported on this in our earlier article ‘Muslim schools take-over plot revealed‘, we had no idea how far this plot extended. Since news first broke, the Birmingham City Council has received over 200 reports concerning this inquiry.
The reports involve both primary and secondary academies and consist of calls and emails from staff, parents, and governors.
The allegationsmade by school teachers include the bullying of non-Muslim staff members, separating boys and girls during classes and assemblies, and banning sex education.
This concern was first raised last November when an anonymous letter known as “Operation Trojan Horse” emerged, outlining the hard-line Muslim plot attempting to take over UK city schools, four of which were apparently infiltrated. This letter encourages parents to rebel against school leaders if the schools are “corrupting their children with sex education, teaching about homosexuals, making their children pray Christian prayers and [carrying out] mixed swimming and sport.”
The instructions in the letter advocate more emphasis on Islamic studies as well as gender segregation in classrooms. The letter additionally says that the goal is to “ensure these schools are run on Islamic principles.”
A key part of the investigation is to determine whether or not the plot is genuine. Sir Albert Bore, the leader of Birmingham City Council, does not believe it is. But he does think that “there are issues…to look at carefully—issues perhaps around how a governing body behaves, perhaps what is said and done around the school.” His concern was that community relations could be in danger of falling apart.
One school governor also thinks the letter and surrounding allegations are a hoax. In addition, Tahir Alam from Park View Education Trust called the investigation a “witch hunt” that was based on “all sorts of false allegations.”
Birmingham city council’s chief executive, Mark Rogers, attributed these allegations not to a Muslim plot but to “cultural traditions” in immigrant communities that are at odds with England’s national school curriculum.
In response to these reports, Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education, instructed Ofsted inspectors to fail any schools in which religion is “getting in the way of learning and a balanced curriculum.” These investigations come partly because of accusations that Mr. Gove has shown a “shocking degree” of complacency with school policies.
Next month the results from the investigation will be published, and they are predicted to show that students are being proselytized with conservative Islamic ideas . If this is true, governors and head teachers who are found “inadequate” on these grounds could be dismissed immediately.
Last week Michael White, a former UK school teacher, revealed that some teachers were aware of the plot over 20 years ago but dismissed him instead of doing anything about it. White said that the Local Education Authority (LEA) listened to his claim but “didn’t want to exchange one set of problems for another.”
Khalid Mahmood, a Birmingham MP, said that for at least eight years the council knew about these claims but did not act for fear of “appearing anti-Muslim.” The height of the scandal is at Birmingham’s Park View Academy, where it is claimed that £70,000 was used to purchase loudspeakers to call pupils to Islamic prayers.
Despite the mounting evidence, authorities continue to downplay the seriousness of this case because of its so-called sensitive nature. As one reporter noted, nobody involved “wants to be called an ‘Islamaphobe’ or a racist, nor do they wish to be labelled a right wing conspiracy theorist.”
Even more unfortunate is that some potential whistle-blowers are afraid of losing their jobs if they come forward with what they know. If people fear that speaking out against Muslim infiltration of their school policies could cost them their careers, how can we hope for any change to take place? Moreover, as British leaders are anxious to show themselves to be multicultural, it is unlikely that Ofsted will be able to actually fail schools in which the religion of Islam is entrenched.
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Professor Jim Al-Khalili got his British Humanist Association mates to sign the anti-Christian letter.
The signatories of a letter accusing David Cameron of ‘fostering alienation and division in our society’ by maintaining that Britain is a Christian country have all turned out to be signed-up atheists.
Research carried out by Christian Voice has revealed that every single one of the fifty-five signatories is a ‘Distinguished Supporter‘ of the British Humanist Association (BHA). Many are also an ‘Honorary Associate‘ of the National Secular Society (NSS), and a couple are involved with the so-called Rationalist Association.
Nowhere in their letter to the Daily Telegraph do they acknowledge that they are all BHA supporters or that the letter was organised by the BHA. The BHA admit on their website that their president organised it, but do not disclose that every signatory was already in their go-to bag, merely describing them as ‘public figures’. Even more worrying, no mainstream media picked up on that fact either.
The Daily Telegraph described the signatories as ’55 public figures from a range of political backgrounds’. Er, no, they aren’t. They are all atheists. The Guardian sycophantically referred to them as ‘more than 50 prominent public figures including novelists, diplomats, Nobel prize winners and playwrights.’ The Independent described them as ‘an alliance of public figures including scientists, novelists and politicians.‘ The BBC described them as ‘a group of public figures’ rather than the more accurate: ‘a group of atheist time-servers taking themselves too seriously.’
Why was that? Plainly the omission of any reference to the British Humanist Association and the corresponding ability of the organisation to drum up so many distinguished-sounding names so quickly while keeping itself in the background gave the letter its only possible credibility.
Here are the signatories (BHA supporters Sir Jonathan Miller and Richard Dawkins and a few others have since added their names):
Professor Jim Al-Khalil: BHA Distinguished Supporter and President, Theoretical physicist, Professor of public engagement in science at the University of Surrey, author and broadcaster.
Philip Pullman: BHA Distinguished Supporter, NSS Honorary Associate, atheist, author from Norwich, author of the trilogy His Dark Materials. Once said, ‘I’m trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief.’
Tim Minchin: BHA Distinguished Supporter, Australian musician, composer, songwriter, actor, comedian. Appeared in various TV shows.
Dr Simon Singh: BHA Distinguished Supporter, Science Writer, TV Director and Producer for BBC, lecturer, honorary associate of the Rationalist Association.
Ken Follett: BHA Honorary Member and BHA Distinguished Supporter. Parents are born-again Christians but rejected Christianity himself after becoming disillusioned. Writer and journalist.
Dr Adam Rutherford: BHA Distinguished Supporter, Science writer, editor, broadcaster.
Sir John Sulston: BHA Distinguished Supporter, Scientist, Nobel Prize winner, scientist father was an Anglican priest, brought up a Christian but lost faith as a teenager.
Sir David Smith: BHA Distinguished Supporter, Botanist, lecturer, campaigned against expansion of religious maintained schools.
Professor Jonathan Glover: BHA Distinguished Supporter, philosopher, writer of books on ethics.
Professor Anthony Grayling: BHA Vice President and Distinguished Supporter, NSS Honorary Associate, Master of New College of the Humanities, writer, philosopher, campaigns for euthanasia.
Nick Ross: BHA Distinguished Supporter, Journalist, TV Presenter known for presenting Crimewatch, Chair of Jill Dando Institute for Crime Science, Chair of Crimewatch.
Virginia Ironside: BHA Distinguished Supporter, NSS Honorary Associate, Abortionist, writer, past agony aunt for the Daily Mirror but now writes a column for the Oldie.
Professor Steven Rose: BHA Distinguished Supporter, scientist, writer, born to Jewish parents.
Natalie Haynes: BHA Distinguished Supporter, comedienne, writer, human rights supporter. Writer of An Atheists Guide to Christmas.
Peter Tatchell: BHA Distinguished Supporter, homosexual, human rights campaigner, atheist, gay rights campaigner, Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, contributor to paedophile book Betrayal of Youth.
Professor Raymond Tallis: BHA Distinguished Supporter, physician, philosopher, author, poet, favours assisted dying.
Dr Iolo ap Gwynn: BHA Distinguished Supporter, scientist, mountaineer, atheist and interested in the natural world.
Stephen Volk: BHA Distinguished Supporter, supernatural screenwriter, author, spiritualism researcher, interested in parapsychology.
Professor Steve Jones: BHA Distinguished Supporter, NSS Honorary Associate, professor of genetics, science writer, broadcaster, outspoken against creationism.
Sir Terry Pratchett: BHA Distinguished Supporter, NSS Honorary Associate, believer in euthanasia, fantasy fiction author, satirist. Raises awareness of dementia.
Dr Evan Harris: NSS Honorary Associate, ex-MP, supporter of euthanasia, abortion, homosexuality.
Dr Richard Bartle: BHA Distinguished Supporter, Professor of Computer Game Design at the University of Essex.
Sian Berry: BHA Distinguished Supporter, Green Party member and campaigner, politician, author, supporter of atheist bus campaign, contributor to The Atheists’ Guide to Christmas.
C J De Mooi: BHA Distinguished Supporter, President of the English Chess Federation, actor, professional quizzer and panellist on Eggheads, homosexual, supporter of gay rights.
Professor John A Lee: BHA Distinguished Supporter, Consultant Histopathologist at Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust, Professor of Pathology at Hull York Medical School, writer in the Lancet.
Professor Richard Norman: BHA Vice President and Distinguished Supporter, Professor of Moral Philosophy, founder-member of the Humanist Philosophers’ Group, contributor to BHA web resources.
Zoe Margolis: BHA Distinguished Supporter, writer, journalist, best-selling blogger, contributor to The Guardian and The Observer, ‘ambassador’ for the Brooks sexual health charity, pornographic author of Girl with a One-Track Mind.
Joan Smith: BHA Distinguished Supporter, NSS Honorary Associate, columnist, novelist and human rights activist, writes about feminism and human rights.
Michael Gore: BHA Distinguished Supporter, Brought up a Roman Catholic but abandoned the faith, promoter of Darwinism, naturalist.
Derek McAuley: Professor of Digital Economy, School of Computer Science, University of Nottingham, Director of Horizon at the University of Nottingham, Fellow of the British Computer Society.
Lorraine Barratt: BHA trained celebrant and conductor of Humanist and non-religions funerals and baby ceremonies, atheist. Lives in Penarth, Wales. Resigned as a Welsh AM shortly after hosting a blasphemous poetry recital in the Assembly.
Dr Susan Blackmore: BHA Distinguished Supporter, writer, lecturer, broadcaster, visiting Professor at the University of Plymouth, Bristol, atheist.
Dr Harry Stopes-Roe: BHA Vice President and Distinguished Supporter, British philosopher, son of family planning pioneer Marie Stopes, past science lecturer.
Sir Geoffrey Bindman QC: BHA Distinguished Supporter, human rights layer, Jewish immigrant descendant, founded Bindmans law firm.
Adele Anderson: BHA Distinguished Supporter, transsexual, actress and singer in cabaret and musical theatre, writer, bought up as Anglican.
Dr Helena Cronin: BHA Distinguished Supporter, Co-Director, Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science, LSE, explorer of evolutionary thinking, campaigner against maintained religion schools, an honorary associate of Rationalist International and of the Rationalist Association, wants Charles Darwin’s birthday to be a public holiday.
Professor Alice Roberts: BHA Distinguished Supporter, Anatomist, fanatical evolutionist, broadcaster, self-declared non-believer in life after death.
Professor Chris French: BHA Distinguished Supporter, Chartered Psychologist, sceptic Professor of Psychology, specialising in paranormal beliefs, editor of The Skeptic, Guardian writer.
Sir Tom Blundell: BHA Distinguished Supporter, British biochemist and science administrator, supported proposed bank holiday for Charles Darwin’s birthday, research interests include DNA repair.
Maureen Duffy: BHA Distinguished Supporter: Novelist, poet, playwright, used Freudian ideas and Greek mythology in her works, wrote lesbian novel The Microcosm. Homosexual activist and first president of the Gay Humanist Group.
Baroness Whitaker: BHA Vice President and Distinguished Supporter, Former civil servant, Labour life peer since, moved amendment to repeal the blasphemy law in Anti-Terrorism Bill.
Lord Avebury: BHA Distinguished Supporter, NSS Honorary Associate, Lib Dem peer, founder Parliamentary Human Rights Group, Buddhist, ardent campaigner against blasphemy laws and for euthanasia.
Richard Herring: BHA Distinguished Supporter, writer, stand-up comedian, TV celebrity. Wrote Christ on a Bike – The Second Coming.
Martin Rowson: BHA Distinguished Supporter, writer, cartoonist for The Guardian, The Times, The Sindy, The Daily Mirror, The Spectator.
Tony Hawks: BHA Distinguished Supporter, comedian, writer, musician and philanthropist, TV/radio panellist,
Peter Cave: BHA Distinguished Supporter, author, speaker, lecturer, chair Philosophers’ Group, scripted and presented BBC radio philosophy programmes.
Diane Munday: BHA Distinguished Supporter, abortionist, member of the Abortion Law Reform Association in 1960s, ex-magistrate, a director of the Rationalist Press Association.
Professor Norman MacLean: BHA Distinguished Supporter, biologist, Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences, Southampton University. Reared as an Exclusive Brethren.
Professor Sir Harold Kroto: BHA Distinguished Supporter, joint Nobel Prize winner for Chemistry, Professor of Chemistry, against expansion of religious maintained schools, raised Jewish.
Sir Richard Dalton: BHA Distinguished Supporter, former diplomat, business consultant, Associate Fellow of the Middle East Programme, author.
Sir David Blatherwick: BHA Distinguished Supporter, retired diplomat.
Michael Rubenstein: BHA Distinguished Supporter, publisher, writer, adviser on employment and discrimination law, Editor monthly Industrial Relations Law Reports.
Polly Toynbee: BHA Vice President and Distinguished Supporter, NSS Honorary Associate, writer, Guardian columnist, broadcaster, feature writer for Observer.
Lord O’Neill: BHA Distinguished Supporter, NSS Honorary Associate, Ex-Labour MP for Ochil, against ‘mixing religion and politics’.
Dan Snow: BHA ‘Distinguished Supporter’, avowed atheist, broadcaster, historian, should know better.
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Sarah Mbuyi said she made the comments only after being pressed on her beliefs by a colleague who initiated the conversation at Newpark Childcare in Highbury, north London, in January.
But the colleague gave her employers an different story and Sarah Mbuyi was called to an internal disciplinary hearing. The nursery directors instantly dismissed her for gross misconduct.
Mbuyi, who is claiming unfair dismissal on grounds of religious discrimination, said: “When I said ‘No, God does not condone the practice of homosexuality, but does love you and says you should come to Him as you are’, [her colleague] became emotional and went off to report me to my manager.”
She is being supported by the Christian Legal Centre. The story broke just days after the Prime Minister had urged Christians to ‘more evangelism’ and ‘to improve both the spiritual, physical and moral state of our country.’
Andrea Williams, the Christian Legal Centre’s director, said the government had “seriously let down” Christians and criticised David Cameron for attempting to “mould Christianity to his political agenda”. Mrs Williams said if the prime minister was “serious in his support for Christianity”, he would intervene in the case.
She went on: “Sharing Biblical truths out of genuine love and concern for colleagues is being outlawed in the workplace by a dominating cultural correctness.”
The story illustrates that the ‘acceptance’ and ‘tolerance’ demanded by homosexuals is not extended to their opponents.
They said they just wanted to be left alone to get on with their lives in private – unitl they achieved that.
Then they said they just wanted to be tolerated as a minority – unitl they achieved that.
They said they just wanted to be accepted as who they were by psychiatrists – unitl they achieved that.
Then they said they just wanted to be treated the same as everyone else in employment – unitl they achieved that.
Then they said they just wanted equal access to goods and services – unitl they achieved that.
They said they just wanted their disordered relationships to be recognised by the state – unitl they achieved that.
Then they said they just wanted to be married – unitl they achieved that.
Now we have the spectacle of Christians being hounded out of their jobs for expressing the Gospel upon which this nation is founded, or forced to act against their conscience. A ‘hate-crime’ law is operating clandestinely, clamping down on freedom of speech and freedom of expression.
And alongside the revelation that sharing a Biblical view in response to a question is ‘gross misconduct’, is not one of the most disturbing aspects of this case that a lesbian is working in a children’s nursery and no-one bats an eyelid?
Romans 1:25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
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Tony Blair has warned Western leaders they must put aside their differences with Russia over Ukraine to focus on the threat of Islamic extremism – and work with both Russia and China.
In a speech at Bloomberg in London the former UK prime minister – now a Middle East envoy –said powerful nations must “take sides” and back “open-minded” groups.
Mr Blair repeated his claim that Islam is a peaceful religion which has been hijacked by extremists, but it is encouraging that he has recognised the threat posed by militant Islam, even though a globalist agenda may be behind what he had to say.
In his speech, Mr Blair called on Western leaders to “elevate the issue of religious extremism to the top of the agenda”.
And they must co-operate with other countries – “in particular, Russia and China” – regardless of “other differences”.
He argued the threat posed by a radical view which “distorts and warps Islam’s true message” was “spreading across the world”.
“The Muslim population in Europe is now over 40m and growing. The Muslim Brotherhood and other organisations are increasingly active and they operate without much investigation or constraint. Recent controversy over schools in Birmingham (and similar allegations in France) show heightened levels of concern about Islamist penetration of our own societies.”
Tellingly, as one who has participated in meetings of the globalist Bilderberg Group, the alleged benefits of globalisation were not far from Mr Blair’s thoughts: “It (militant Islam) is destabilising communities and even nations. It is undermining the possibility of peaceful co-existence in an era of globalisation.”
Curiously, Mr Blair told the BBC ahead of the speech the West would pay a “very heavy price” for not intervening in Syria and that the opportunity to create “an optimistic solution” had been missed. Because Britain, the EU and the United States supported the rebels rather than President Assad, who they viewed as a Russian ally, Al-Qaeda and other Muslim militant groups have been able to siphon off that aid and now form the military opposition. The moderate opposition in Syria which Mr Blair had such faith in has been crushed by the very Islamic militants he is now warning against.
Islamist fighters, including some from the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, had taken over part of Maaloula in December and held several nuns captive until releasing them in March in a prisoner-exchange deal.
President Assad, a member of the minority Alawite sect, protected Syrian Christians and the Syrian Coptic Church. The militants which Britain has funded have persecuted them. Over Easter, David Cameron said his government would support persecuted Christians.
President Obama is currently touring the Far East. He will visit Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, and the Philippines – but not China.
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Attorney General Dominic Grieve and Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith told the Daily Telegraph modern Britain had “Christian heritage”.
Mr Grieve, a patron of the Conservative Christian Fellowship, said atheism had not made “much progress” in the UK.
Christian Heritage
“Many of the underlying ethics of society are Christian-based and the result of 1,500 years of Christian input into our national life,” he said.
“It is not going to disappear overnight. They [atheists] are deluding themselves.”
Mr Duncan Smith said claims that Britain was not a Christian country were “absurd” and ignored “both historical and constitutional reality”.
“It is arguably our Christian heritage, with its innate tolerance and inclusivity, that has ensured the freedom of all voices – religious or non-religious – to be heard and to be valued,” he said.
Division
The scathing comments follow a letter in the Daily Telegraph signed by a group of militant atheists, headed by Philip Pullman and Polly Toynbee, claiming that “we are a largely non-religious society” and that “constantly to claim otherwise fosters alienation and division in our society.”
“At a social level, Britain has been shaped for the better by many pre-Christian, non-Christian, and post-Christian forces,” they claimed. Maybe and maybe not. But the furious signatories, most of whom are closely associated with either the British Humanist Association or the National Secular Society, cannot bring themselves to agree that Christianity has done the most to make Britain great.
The atheists’ letter was in its turn a response to Prime Minister David Cameron’s hosting a reception for Christian leaders at 10 Downing Street and following up with a video and an article in Church Times earlier this month, all emphasising the importance of Christianity.
Reception at 10 Downing Street
At the reception, held on Wednesday 9th April, Mr Cameron said: “I’m proud to hold a reception for Christians here in Downing Street and proud to be a Christian myself and to have my children at a church school.” He went on: “I am proud of the fact we’re a Christian country and we shouldn’t be ashamed to say so.”
The Prime Minister set out three targets:
“The first is to expand the role of faith and faith organisations in our country.” This is the ‘Big Society’ again.
“Second thing is I hope we can do more to raise the profile of the persecution of Christians around the world. It is the case today that our religion is now the most persecuted religion around the world. I think Britain can play a leading role in this.”
The third thing, he said, mattered both to politicians and to church people: “What we both need more of is evangelism. More belief that we can get out there and actually change people’s lives and make a difference and improve both the spiritual, physical and moral state of our country, and we should be unashamed and clear about wanting to do that.”
Easter Message
In a short Easter message posted on YouTube a couple of days later, Mr Cameron spoke of how Christianity benefits the United Kingdom, saying that Easter is the most important date in the Christian calendar, and remembering seeing the places where Jesus Christ walked in the Holy Land.
He commended the “countless acts of kindness by those who believe in and follow Christ” as well as the broad social good done by ministries that serve the homeless and those in prison. He also reiterated his call to remember the persecuted Church around the world and affirmed that “religious freedom is an absolute, fundamental human right,” one which Britain is committed to “protecting and promoting.”
Healing power of the Church
In his article in Church Times, published on 16th April, Mr Cameron announced an £8 million grant to the church-based Near Neighbours programme and spoke of knowing the power of the Christian faith in his own life. “I have felt at first hand the healing power of the Church’s pastoral care,” he said, referring to the death of his son.
Speaking about the importance of Christianity, he said: “Some people feel that in this ever more secular age we shouldn’t talk about these things. I completely disagree. I believe we should be more confident about our status as a Christian country, more ambitious about expanding the role of faith-based organisations, and, frankly, more evangelical about a faith that compels us to get out there and make a difference to people’s lives.”
He concluded: “We can change the world and make it a better place. That to me is what a lot of the Christian message is about – and it is a confidence in our Christianity that we can all reflect on this Easter.”
Pray that the Prime Minister’s words become a reality in Government. Pray that his ‘doing God’ is not just a reaction to the electoral threat of UKIP. Pray that Mr Cameron will see the damage ‘gay marriage’ has done and will do to our society and our Christian heritage. Pray that Britain would indeed stand up for persecuted Christians around the world. Pray that the law will change to protect Christians evangelising and sharing their faith at work. Pray for a deeper understanding of our Christian heritage in the Church. Pray that God will confound his enemies.
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Jayden Wray’s vitamin deficiency was to blame for the broken bones which led to him being taken ‘into care’.
The much-trumpeted legal reforms announced today will not end the secrecy and injustice which surrounds the Family Court.
The plan includes new time limits for cases where children are taken into care, which could work against parents struggling to meet demands placed upon them by social services departments.
Ministers said the changes would put the welfare of children at the centre of the system. But that is what they have always said. The suspicion is that the welfare of the system itself is paramount.
Sir James Munby, President of the Family Division, said the changes were the biggest in a lifetime. But they will not end the cosy relationship of social workers, Cafcass officials, paid ‘experts’ and child panel solicitors.
Crucially, they will not end the cloak of secrecy imposed on all dealings in the Family Courts. No-one may speak outside of what occurs inside on pain of imprisonment. This mafia-like omerta allows injustice to flourish. Justice can only happen when it is seen to be done. We are told the secrecy is imposed to protect the child. In reality, it is there to protect the system.
Care cases will be completed in six months in a single Family Court, which replaces the current three-tier court system in family cases. Although it could be good that cases are followed through by a single judge – assuming he or she is not corrupt – this time-scale will increase the sense parents have of their children being rushed into the adoption process against their wishes – the so-called ‘freed for adoption’ mechanism.
There are also supposed to be limits placed on the amount of expert evidence that can be used in cases involving children, only being permitted when it is ‘necessary to resolve the case justly’. Whether that will end the careers some experts have made out of backing up social workers with spurious observations and biased conclusions, or whether coaches and horses will be driven through it, remains to be seen.
Just yesterday, a distraught mother put up this comment on an older story on our website:
‘Please can you help me get my daughter back from social services? My daughter was kidnapped in 2011 when she was age 11.a teacher and s.s said I hit my daughter. I did not and never have. Police came and took her away. The next day she was taken to a children’s hospital where a doctor lied and made a false report saying she had unexplained bruises. She did not have any bruises.’
The Jayden Wray case exposed how dangerous it is these for parents to take a child to hospital. Jayden had brittle bones from rickets but doctors and social workers demanded the parents confess that they had caused Jayden’s injuries.
Clive Coleman, legal correspondent, BBC News, said: ‘Babies, toddlers and teenagers going through care proceedings have been removed from their parents for their own well being’. Sometimes they are. But in too many cases, when parents cannot explain a bruise a child acquired in the garden, or the child suffers from a mystery illness, they are removed, and even when the mistake is found, social workers will not return the child and fabricate evidence.
Short of death, there is no penalty more draconian than for the state to take people’s children from them.
Our readers or their churches are certain to come into contact with parents whose children have been taken from them by social services.
We are constantly told that homosexuals are the sort of people the Lord Jesus would have ‘been alongside’ as they are on the ‘margins of society’? Are they really? No, they are in the media, in diversity departments and government, with their feet under the table at No10, feted to the skies.
Would you like to know who really are on the margins of society? It is parents who feel totally inadequate and overwhelmed in the face of a machine which grinds them to powder in its quest to assume their function and to strip their children from them.
We should be standing with them, praying with them, showing how God hates injustice, fighting with them to have their children returned.
Kate Hills, spokeswoman for Lingfield owners Arena Racing, said: “One of the reasons we are having racing on Good Friday is it’s a day of leisure and people are looking for something to do.”
It is also an opportunity to make some money.
In the modern era, off-course betting shops first opened on Good Friday in 2008. Championship football matches will be held today, some shops will open. These are modern-day, secularist developments. As recently as 1986 the Daily Telegraph was not published on Good Friday.
In a sense it is rather appropriate to have gambling on the day we remember Christ’s crucifixion. The Roman soldiers cast lots for the coat of Jesus, fulfilling an Old Testament prophecy in Psalm 22.
It will be thoroughbreds racing today, but Christ entered Jerusalem as a king but riding on a donkey, again fulfilling an Old Testament prophecy:
Zechariah 9:9: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.
As A N Wilson points out, even people of no faith used to recognise Good Friday as a day of solemnity.
A lot has changed in just a few years, a degree of respect for what is holy has been lost and our society has become more coarse and more crass along the way.
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It is coming to something when the Russian Foreign Minister is more believable than your own.
Four days ago, The Rt Hon William Hague, talking about the unrest in Eastern Ukraine, said, ‘There can’t really be any real doubt that this is something that has been planned and brought about by Russia. … violation of the independence and sovereignty of Ukraine … There has to be a clear and united international response.’
Back in March, President Obama said ‘Make no mistake, neither the United States nor Europe has any interest in controlling Ukraine.’ (Was that before or after US officals were overheard discussing who they wanted to install as Ukrainian president?) That video is admittedly published by Russia Today but those are his words.
In contrast, the Russian Foreign Minister has denied that Russia has stoked up the problems. And the truth is, Russia did neither fund nor organise the pro-EU demonstrations and take-over of government in Kiev, ousting pro-Russian President Yanakovich in the process, which started the Ukraine crisis in the first place.
We have already reported how Western NGO’s financed the ‘Maidan Square’ protest movement. But Christian Voice has discovered that millions of dollars have been pouring into Ukrainian NGO’s and ‘civil society’ organisations for the last couple of years. Principal donors include the Open Society Foundation and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.
The Foundation Centre lists over $18 million of grants by US NGO’s to Ukrainian ‘civil society’ recipients. The breakdown can be seen by clicking on each recipient. To take one example, the Open Society Foundation for Ukraine – directly fingered in the pro-EU rioting – received over $535,000 jointly from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and the National Endowment for Democracy. The Civil Society Institute, an EU sock-puppet, got $450,00 dollars. An Open Society front organisation, the Ukrainian Step by Step Foundation, was given $1,527,000. An organisation called Ednannia was given the most money, $1,550,000.
One grant of $250,000 from Mott to Ednannia was ‘to foster the development of community foundations in Ukraine.’ Indeed, one can read the whole grant profile (three-quarters of the way down this page) and be none the wiser what Ednannia actually do, apart from ‘social action’. The Mott Foundation’s own website says it especially likes ‘the development of community foundations’
What are those? Well, a click on the link reveals that they are ‘Rooted Locally, Growing Globally’ and are favoured for being ‘local leaders of positive change’. Call us cynical, but if positive change involves taking up arms, storming government buildings, ousting elected governments and trying to join the European Union by force, then it looks less than desirable.
Even Chatham House, an elitist body itself, admits that NGO’s in countries like Ukraine are funded entirely from the Western elite and almost entirely disconnected from ordinary people. Pretending to be ‘democratic’, they could not be less empowered with any semblance of a popular mandate.
William Hague said on Monday that the EU summit would focus on “how we support democratic institutions and the elections in Ukraine”. The EU’s idea of doing that is apparently funding exactly those NGO’s Chatham House identifies as the least democratic and overturning elected officials in sovereign states by force. It was Orwellian newspeak from Mr Hague.
The Bible says: Exodus 18:21 Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens:
How many of members of the British Establishment would pass that test? Would William Hague?
What a sorry state we are in, when HM Foreign Secretary is the least believable man in Britain.
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The Royal Air Force is practising attacking raids as the Ukraine crisis deepens.
Training flights were conducted yesterday across Wales, flying over the Christian Voice office in Carmarthenshire.
The aircraft, which flew at low level over the rolling Welsh hills, were most likely to have been Hawk fighter jets, based at RAF Valley on Anglesey and used by the RAF for twin-seat training.
Similar exercises were carried out before the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan began.
The practice runs come as Ukrainian armed forces have been trying, without success, to retake cities in Eastern Ukraine held by pro-Russian demonstrators.
Three people are reported to have been killed, but their has been no condemnation of Ukraine for ‘firing on its own people’ from either the Rt Hon William Hague MP, Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, or US Secretary of State John Kerry.
Meanwhile, the United States is talking about sending ‘non-lethal’ equipment to Kiev, and the European Union is beefing up its armed forces in the Baltic States and Poland.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Nato Secretary General, said the alliance would be providing “more planes in the air, more ships on the water, and more readiness on land”.
What these would be used for, apart from taking on Russian forces in what could easily become a Third World War, is not very clear.
We join Nigel Farage and John Redwood in calling for Britain to leave the EU
and we are with The Daily Express as it urges Britain to stay out of the Ukrainian conflict.
We need to remember that the problems in Ukraine started when pro-EU NGO’s including the ‘Open Society’ of George Soros, financed trouble-makers in Kiev who took over government buildings when the elected President decided to align the country with Russia rather than with the EU.
Charitably, these actions may be regarded as stupid, and bound to lead to the copycat actions in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine which came to pass. Uncharitably, Messrs Soros et al foresaw all the Eastern Ukraine trouble in advance and want to start a full-scale war, from which they could benefit financially. (Take what you will from that last link!)
Either way, the Ukrainian conflict is one which Britain must not play any part in. William Hague will never admit that it was pro-EU agitation which started the Ukraine crisis, but at the very least HMG could end the self-defeating sanctions against Russian figures, and stop sabre-rattling.
Email your MP and demand that the UK keeps right out of Ukraine.
Stop Press: The above article was written 17th April 2014.
23rd April 2014: ‘Four RAF Typhoon fighters will next week join Nato warplanes from Poland and Denmark in the Baltic states’. Daily Telegraph
Christian Voice: We have the news before it happens!
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A summaryof this article, published by the Gatestone Institute, discusses the key points of the report, highlighting how “police, social workers, teachers, neighbors, politicians and the media” turned a blind eye to the crimes of these Muslim gangs for fear of being accused of racism or “Islamophobia.”
Muslims at prayer – in the street
The “conspiracy of silence” regarding child grooming by Muslim gangs was exposed in 2010 when the underground investigation Operation Retriever found and convicted 13 Muslim men for grooming approximately 100 underage girls for sex. This generated more investigations and led to the discovery of several Muslim grooming gangs. Although many offenders were identified, few were prosecuted.
According to the “Easy Meat” report, these offenders are 154 times more likely to be Muslims, while the victims are almost always non-Muslim girls. But authorities have “never deemed it important to declare this, or even denied the pattern existed.”
These incidents were deemed unimportant because of multiculturalism. The report tells us:
“There is far more to this story than has come out so far. The population are already outraged by what they have learned in the last year or two, but know only a fraction of the scandal… This massive over-representation of Muslim men in this crime spree has been borne out by the prosecutions of the last three to four years, but it is clear that it must have been known long ago and should have been made public. Because the predators were Muslims, the agencies responsible for child-protection have almost entirely failed in their job to protect vulnerable children. From a fear of being called ‘racist,’ police forces across the country have buried the evidence.
“On the rare occasion when the phenomenon [of child grooming] would be discussed in more than the briefest details, political activists and the authorities would come together to stop the public from knowing more. Political correctness would be used to make sure that people did not speak about this phenomenon, enabling the perpetrators free rein to sexually abuse schoolgirls for decades. Yes, decades. We know that in an age where parents are not allowed to smack their children, this sounds unbelievable.”
The problem is much more prevalent than previously reported. In fact, as many as 10,000 schoolgirls have been victimized over the years by these Muslim gangs. According to a House of Commons report, as of November 2012 “at least 16,500 children were identified as being at risk of child sexual exploitation during one year.”
Their method is to drive around towns at night and zero in on young, non-Muslim schoolgirls between the ages of 11 and 16. They often give the girls drinks and drugs to entice them into the car. Many of the victims are from care or foster homes, where they might not be immediately missed. The younger the better is usually the policy with the girls they target. The younger the girls are more likely to be virgins who are free from any sexual diseases. (Most of these men have Muslim wives whom they do not want to contaminate.)
The report criticizes British Government for using multiculturalism as an excuse to turn a blind eye to this issue. The Government continues to excuse Muslims because many of the crimes they commit under British law are not crimes according to Sharia law. As the report says, “Multiculturalism is a fundamentally incoherent doctrine, invented to conceal the serious conflicts which have arisen when peoples from vastly different cultures, with different values, are forced to live together.”
In its reluctance to be even-handed and non-discriminatory, the Government has outright refused to take into account religious or ethnic connections to these and other crimes perpetrated by Muslims. The possibility that Islamic law might have something to do with this behaviour is not worthy of consideration.
The British Government expects all its citizens, including Muslims, to embrace multiculturalism. However, the religion of Islam is by its very nature opposed to the principles of multiculturalism through its intolerance of all dissenting voices. Moreover, the symbiotic relationship between Islam and the political left cannot last since once Muslims achieve power, they kick behind them the ladder of multiculturalism that they used for climbing to power.
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