Does the Church of England stand for anything sacred any more?

"UK Manchester Cathedral calls Muslims to prayer." 

Not Christian prayers of course but prayers of worshippers who believe in a political ideology which denies that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, relegating Him to the role of a minor prophet.

The Dean of Manchester was awarded an MBE in 2018 for his services to interfaith relations but Iftar in the cathedral goes way beyond good relations.

In Islamic countries many Christians are in fear of their lives for their faith. 

Recently in the UK, not far from Manchester, death threats were sent to pupils who had been suspended from school for accidentally damaging a copy of the Quran.

 

Following the love and faith debacle the Church of England appears to have completely lost the plot.

Postscript [07.04.2023]

From Church Times: "The Chapter of Manchester Cathedral has apologised for allowing the Muslim call to prayer to be made in the cathedral at an interfaith event last week.

"The Open Iftar event on Wednesday of last week was organised by the Ramadan Tent Project, a Muslim charity. An Iftar is the meal that breaks the day’s Ramadan fast..."

"C of E guidance for churches and cathedrals hosting an Iftar says that the adhan 'should happen in the room allocated for prayer, rather than a consecrated space'." Article here.

What hope for the Church of England if they can't tell the difference between the redeeming love of Christianity and a punishing political ideology?

Dialogue and death

Archbishop of Wales, John Davies, welcoming guests at a dinner hosted by the

Muslim Council of Wales in Cardiff.  Source: Church in Wales

On Tuesday 26th March 2019 the Muslim Council of Wales "were delighted" to hold their Annual Interfaith Dinner. It was held at St Fagans National Museum of History "an illustrious venue that is set in the grounds of St Fagans Castle and chronicles the historic lifestyle, culture and architecture of the Welsh people.

"In the usual tradition of the Muslim Council of Wales interfaith dinners, each table in the main hall was named after a virtuous characteristic such as kinship, compassion and hope. The name cards at each seat also had beautiful quotes from the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), such as 'None of you believes until you love for your brother what you love for yourself'.

"Sheikh Yaqoub Kutkut opened the evening with his melodic recitation of the Holy Quran. Professor Saleem Kidwai OBE, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Wales welcomed everyone in the opening address and a minute of silence was held for the victims of the Christchurch terrorist attack.

A different culture was in evidence in Sri Lanka a few weeks later.

On Easter Sunday, jihadist suicide bombers linked to the Islamic State (IS) group killed at least 253 people and injured some 500 at churches and top-end hotels across Sri Lanka.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, is visiting Sri Lanka taking a message described by the Rev George Conger on Anglican Unscripted as:

"Why can't we all get along? Why can't we just be nice to Muslims who are killing us when what is needed is someone to speak about regeneration, salvation and suffering through persecution. We don't need the pablum of the liberal democratic West.

"While the Christians there are under fear for their lives the response of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and of Pope Francis, is that if we are only nicer to Muslims, if we make friends with them and go to their house for dinner every so often, then all shall be well.

"The response that Anglican Unscripted was hearing from its followers was: 'You don't understand; these people want to kill us. They believe that it is for them, Muslims, a moral duty to kill the infidel and we are the infidel, to kill the idolator'

"There is a mismatch between the pablum of Western liberal Christianity and the on-the-ground Christianity of the suffering persecuted Church."

Bishop Gavin Ashenden added:

"There is an incredible arrogance too in Christian commentators in the West who keep on saying the problem with these Muslim terrorists is they don't understand Islam like we do. If they only understood Islam properly they would know it was a religion of peace. They would know that they had no proper mandate to do these things. We could indeed explain how they are being bad Muslims and we expect them to stop and in fact we expect them to stop any day soon because they must surely see they are bad Muslims.

"Of course this is completely out of touch with reality on the ground and the dreadful overlaying of an enormously shallow and prejudiced view of a kind of Western liberal relativistic Islam which has nothing to do with the way in which people read the Quran, live in Islamic communities or see their priorities and so it's a way of evading the truth and evading reality and of course above all it is incredibly patronising and detached from reality."

The uniqueness of Christianity appears to be lost on those in authority in the Church of England and the Church in Wales.

Instead of delivering Christ's message that there is only one way to the Father they convey the impression that all religions are basically the same as expressed by the Bishop’s Officer for Interfaith Dialogue in the archiepiscopal diocese of Swansea and Brecon with its coverage of  Witchcraft, Atheism, Peace Mala, Hare Krishna, Sufi, Islam, Yungdrung Bön, Judaism and Druids.

Presumably in recognition of such work, Interfaith specialists from Europe and North America will be finding out how Wales "models strong relationships between people of different religions" at a conference next week according to a Church in Wales provincial press release:

"Wales’s First Minister and the Archbishop of Wales will be among those describing pioneering partnership work in Wales at the regional meeting of the Anglican Inter Faith Commission.

"The event takes place at Cardiff’s Pierhead building on September 9. It will be chaired by the Archbishop of Dublin and attended by interfaith specialists from Anglican churches in Europe and North American and also representatives from other faiths and church denominations."

The web site of the Anglican Inter Faith Commission includes AIFC News Feeds, one of which is:
15/03/2019 Church leaders offer prayer and solidarity after New Zealand mosque attacks leaves 49 dead.

Like thousands of other persecuted Christians those murdered in Sri Lanka are quietly forgotten.

No response is expected at the Inter Faith Commission to pleas from the persecuted abroad: 'You don't understand; these people want to kill us. They believe that it is for them, Muslims, a moral duty to kill the infidel and we are the infidel'.

Peace Mala. The Archbishop of Wales with supporters @StDavidsNeath.
Source: Twitter @WelshMuslims

Postscripts

06.09,2019

Archbishop Welby pontificates on climate change, but clams up on persecution of Christians in India


08.09.2019

From Christian Concern:
The press regulator guidelines on Islamophobia were leaked this week and reveal a serious threat to press freedom when it comes to Islam related issues.

Extracts from Islamic thought police target the press

"Newspapers and magazines are regulated by the Independent Press Standard Organisation (Ipso) which was set up in 2014 following the phone-hacking scandal. For months, Ipso has been working on a project to draft guidance for journalists on how to report on issues connected with Islam and Muslims. Drafts of this guidance were leaked to the thinktank Policy Exchange which has issued a report about the revelations."

"Trevor Phillips, former head of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, wrote: 'If we give way to the demands being made, the only people who will find themselves silenced will be those who want to tell the truth'."

"The freedom of the press is under threat from Muslim activists who want to control what is said about Islam. Ipso, the press regulator, is capitulating to their demands. Unless things change, press freedom is set to fall. Truth will be the victim."

09.09.2019

This morning
The Church in Wales Retweeted
"Dr Angus M Slater
@AngusSlater Very proud to be in Cardiff today with Interfaith Professional Doctorate students from @UWTSDLampeter @UWTSD with the Anglican Communion Network for Interfaith Concerns organised by the @ChurchinWales"

in an earlier tweet:

"Real, practical, and impactful interfaith work with students assisting Anglican Bishops from across Europe and North America in the reading of scriptures in an Interfaith light."

[My emphasis - ED.]

They could make a start by reading the scriptures in a traditional Christian light.

16.09.2019

Koran read at Westminster Abbey as Royal Cathedral bows to Islam

“By welcoming an uncritical reading of the Koran, Westminster Abbey asserts the legitimacy of Mohammad and in so doing repudiates Jesus.”

“Reading the Koran in cathedrals is sometimes seen as a sign of civility, hospitality or inclusion. Instead, it validates Islam’s teaching that is predicated on the claim that the resurrection was a fraud and Jesus lied to his followers and the world.”

Another tent...

An attentive bishop of Bangor modelling interfaith relations           Source: Twitter @ChurchinWales

Another tent, this time at the Welsh National Eisteddfod, where there has been 'great discussion' on how Wales is modelling interfaith relations.

The Church in Wales is obsessed with interfaith relations, almost as much as it is obsessed with same-sex relations. The Archbishop of Wales, John Davies, has been awarded an honorary doctorate in recognition of his services to the Church in Wales and of his 'leadership across faith communities' - that is, excluding orthodox Anglicans in their own ranks who continue to be ignored as if they no longer existed.

Islam denies that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He died on the cross for the sins of mankind. The sort of faith that the Church in Wales is moving towards, ignoring biblical teaching as it promotes same sex relations giving the impression that such relationships are to  be welcomed as a blessing, a favoured minority to be honoured while orthodox Anglicans are treated with contempt. 

Same sex relations should put the Church at odds with their Muslim brothers and sisters, not that the opinions of women count for much in Islam unlike the Church in Wales in which they are becoming dominant. The emphasis is on good relations regardless of theological differences. Getting along.

How jolly to be getting along in Wales while Christians and others abroad are being massacred for their faith. Just last week it was reported that at least 65 people lost their lives after suspected Boko Haram militants opened fire on a funeral in Nigeria's north-eastern state of Borno.

Did anyone in the tent even notice let alone condemn the atrocity. 

There is much more. 

From a recent Barnabas Fund report:

"An unprecedented humanitarian emergency is looming in the Sahel region of Africa following a surge in armed violence, warned UN aid agencies and NGOs in a report on 27 June. Around one million people fled their homes in the past year, bringing the total number of people displaced across the Sahel to 4.2 million, the report said. Displacement has increased five-fold in Burkina Faso and Niger, which have also recently seen a sharp rise in Islamist attacks against Christians."

Perhaps the scale of such reports is too daunting to comprehend and they happen far away.

They could, instead, have considered a single but not isolated incident. A ten-year-old Christian Pakistani boy who was working at a factory to care for his mother and two brothers. He was raped and tortured by his Muslim employers before he finally died on 10 July, 2019. His sin? He asked to be paid for the work he had done.

Many atrocities go unreported in the media but they can easily be found by Googling. Some links are provided in the right hand column of this blog.

I have not read of any condemnation of the highlighted atrocities from the world leaders who rushed  to support New Zealand’s Prime Minister when she condemned the reported Christchurch mosque shootings.

That is not to endorse the killing of Muslims but to deplore the double standards that allow the murder of Christians to go unreported while getting along with Muslims who, when they are the majority, expect all to conform under Sharia: convert, pay the jizya or die.

Getting along in Wales does nothing for the oppressed abroad while strengthening the hand in this country of a religious ideology that seeks to dominate others using deceit and jihad to advance their supremacist ideology.

Ashamed of the Gospel

 'Dhimmi Bishop' Source: 24/6 Mag                       St Paul’s Cathedral hosts iftar celebration in London     Source: Twitter @anglicanink

Former midwife, now Bishop of London, the Rt Revd and Rt Hon Dame Sarah Mullally, DBE, defers to the Mayor of London, Sadiq Kahn, in St Paul's Cathedral where "different faiths and none" gathered to celebrate an interfaith iftar.

The bishop also covered her head with a hijab-like garment at a secular meeting at Regent’s Park Mosque in London. Perhaps surprisingly she did not tuck her pectoral cross into her cassock for fear of causing further offence to Muslims who find the symbol of salvation offensive.

It could be worse. In fact it was at a Durham Church which offered to cover crosses while hosting Muslim prayers.

The Vicar, Lissa Scott, has been described as a “liberal” who uses “gimmicks like Café Church to offer a gospel-less diet of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.”

Whilst it is understable that simple good manners might indicate a particular course of action out of courtesy and respect for the faith of others it has become a one-way traffic.

Rebel Priest Jules Gomes, wrote: "A parish church in the Diocese of Durham has been criticised for 'being ashamed of the gospel' after saying it would cover crosses and other sacred images in order to host Islamic prayers and an Iftar meal for the local Muslim community. The Church of St Matthew and St Luke, Darlington, also agreed to provide separate worship space so men and women could offer segregated worship."

As another blogger commented, "Is this repugnant surrender of female church leaders to a misogynist creed really what 'interfaith' understanding has come to?"

Postscript [26.05.2019]

The bishop of Bangor has tweeted:
"Last night Dean Kathy Jones led a group of us to the shared meal in Bangor's mosque in this season of Ramadan. We were welcomed and the hospitality was so generous. We can listen and learn when we make time for each other."

Monmouth and St Albans joined in. What would they have learnt from their hosts? It is unlikely that they would have referred to the impassioned address in London by the Rt Rev Bashar Warda who said that Iraq's Christians now faced extinction after 1,400 years of persecution. They certainly would not have referred to the "approximately 270 million non-believers who died over the last 1,400 years for the glory of political Islam."

How is it that Church in Wales bishops can readily engage with a supremacist political ideology that contradicts Christian beliefs and regards women as inferior to men but are unwilling to engage with orthodox Anglicans?

The Church in Wales today

"Interfaith dialogue is not about telling everyone how great our angle on faith is and trying to convert them to it." - Bishop’s Officer for Interfaith Dialogue

It comes as no surprise that the Church in Wales is sinking fast when the Bishop’s Officer for Interfaith Dialogue in the archdiocese of Swansea and Brecon and the high profile vicar of St John's in Cardiff's city centre, the Rev Sarah Jones, express similar views which are contrary to biblical teaching: "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" - Matthew 28:19.

 Perhaps ignorant of the fact that there is only one way to the Father, the Rev Sarah Jones told Wales Online, "I don’t believe in bashing people with the bible or telling them what they should believe".

From the Swansea and Brecon Interfaith page people can find information about many faiths and none. What they will not find is any reference to orthodox Anglicans, the only group excluded from the 'inclusive' Church in Wales.

Interfaith week - for some!

 Asia Bibi, a Christian woman recently acquitted on false charges of blasphemy, is still 'in captivity'
   Source: Breitbart/AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary

People celebrating Interfaith week in the UK are fortunate that they are allowed to demonstrate their tolerance of other faiths. Not so in Pakistan where Asia Bibi was acquitted on false charges of blasphemy after spending nine years in prison but remains in custody. It's all about intolerance.

A Guardian report states that "The court established that Bibi, a Christian, was falsely accused by Muslim women picking fruit with her on 14 June, 2009. The allegation stemmed from a quarrel over the fact that she had taken a sip of water from a cup she had fetched for them, which in the eyes of her accusers she wasn’t allowed to touch."

Breitbart reports that "Bibi will remain in captivity, though not in a prison, until the 'finalization of the legal process,' despite Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordering her release. The Supreme Court is Pakistan’s court of last resort, yet the government brokered a deal with the radical Islamist Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party granting them an extra appeal on the case over the Supreme Court’s ruling." 

Mob rule prevails in Muslim Pakistan. Meanwhile, Church and State are encouraging the Islamification of Great Britain, cowed by claims of Islamophobia if anyone seeks the truth. 

The Church in Wales has been advertising an Interfaith Walking Tour in Cardiff ending at the Dar-Yl-Isra Mosque for a ‘Faith Speed Dating’ experience! 

It is probably no coincidence that the mosque is listed as the Muslim Welfare & Education Centre.

Muslims regard Jesus as a prophet, not the Son of God, and reject the fact that He died on the Cross. 

The Son of God has become a victim of political correctness. By denying Muslims the truth they are being denied salvation and others are made more vulnerable to intolerance.

Wind of change

Interview with a Witch                                                                                     Source: Church in Wales

The diocese of Swansea and Brecon, the current Archiepiscopal see of the Church in Wales, has a web page devoted to Interfaith. On it can be found information about Witchcraft, Atheism, Peace Mala, Hare Krishna, Sufi, Islam, Yungdrung Bön, Judaism and Druids.

Adherents of those faiths are happy to push their own particular message, unlike the  Bishop’s Officer for Interfaith Dialogue who writes, "Interfaith dialogue is not about telling everyone how great our angle on faith is and trying to convert them to it. It is about respect and openness."

Does the Church in Wales believe that there is only one way to the Father or not?

Respect and openness includes the usual message of how the 'religion of peace' gets a bad press as if all the Islamic attacks on the innocent over the last 1400 years were fake news.

There is an interview with Brother Titus, a Cistercian Trappist monk living with another nine monks. They have taken themselves out of the world to live a reclusive life on Caldy Island. What of those of us who are in the world and not of other faiths? There is no dialogue with traditional, orthodox Anglicans. Anyone who conscientiously follows scripture and tradition is excluded.

The central message has been lost. Each diocese does its own thing. St Asaph has been busy promoting the gospel according to LGBT while Bangor is mired in tales of impropriety according to commentators.

In the South of the Province the long-running battle continues to rage in Llandaff between those who think everything is hunky-dory in their cathedral while others insist that the cathedral is mired in discontent as illustrated by the many comments under previous entries about alleged irregularities.

Those who expected the appointment to Llandaff of the second woman bishop in the Church in Wales to cause a whirlwind will be disappointed. The wind has blown one way, in the same direction emitting from the bishop of St Davids.

In St Davids the first woman bishop in the Church in Wales has lost no time in appointing as many women as she can. The first woman Dean arrives in May, months after her appointment. In the meantime the deanery has been gutted and completely refurbished. At what cost when parishes ministry areas are struggling to make ends meet?

That leaves Monmouth. Many clergy have. The CEO's solution there is to appoint a third archdeacon to prop up a failing re-organisation into ministry areas.

There has been a flurry of senior appointments and bishops' advisers. There is no shortage of money for those at the top while the begging bowl is out lower down the chain.

When the new archbishop took office he promised there would be 'more of the same - but faster'. It is a pity he didn't see which way the wind was blowing - or perhaps he did!

Postscript [03.05.2018]

As if to emphasis that there is no shortage of money at the top in the Church in Wales, the bishop of St Davids has announced an addition to her senior management team, a new 'Archdeaconry for New Christian Communities'.

There were Christian communities throughout the diocese and throughout the Province before Barry supported by his bench sitters hatched his innovative plan to copy the disastrous policies of the US Episcopal Church (TEC).

They were called Parishes.

More from St Davids [03.05.2018]

One wonders how any 'new Christian communities' will be properly cared for given: "the strain imposed on stipendiary, NSM and NSM(L) clergy and Readers when service rotas within LMAs include services that, even when all the licensed clergy and Readers were working, need retired clergy to take them.

"Retired clergy could of course be asked to take any service within the designated number but not be used to extend the rota to something that the licensed ministry team couldn’t cover healthily alone.

"The willingness of retired clergy to give their time, effort and energy, should not be used to prolong a way of being church that is no longer sustainable."

Interfaith discussions: the big problem

Archbishop Justin Welby with Dr Waqar Azmi (l) and Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones (r) at the
Muslim Council of Wales dinner, Cardiff, Wales, 1 October 2015.    Photo Credit: Lambeth Palace

In his address to the Muslim Council of Wales (see previous entry), the Archbishop of Canterbury urged faith groups to "go the extra mile" for the common good. Speaking "as a Christian" Archbishop Welby spoke of the values that spring out of the person of Jesus Christ:

"The first of these springs from the fact of incarnation, that in Christian belief we understand that Jesus was at the same time both fully God and fully human, two persons in one nature. Incarnation is summed up in a title of Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. Not just God for us, but God with us in all the mess of the life in which we live." Full report here.

The event marked the 10th anniversary for Cardiff University’s Centre for the Study of Islam in the UK with its "mission to promote scholarly and public understanding of Islam and the life of Muslim communities in the UK". According to its Director, Prof Sophie Gilliat-Ray, we should understand that "poverty, lack of aspiration and Islamophobia are partly to blame for radicalisation of Muslims from Cardiff and elsewhere". Poverty and lack of aspiration are not peculiar to Muslims while Islamophobia is a construction to deflect honest questioning of a system of oppression and often the utmost cruelty when Muslims are in the majority but that does not prevent them from playing the victim.

Prof Gilliat-Ray has been appointed to a UK-wide commission which will be in Cardiff to hear from local Muslims what barriers they face getting involved in the societies in which they live (here). 

When it comes to barriers, Professor of Islamic and Interreligious Studies at Edinburgh ­University’s Divinity School gives an account of essential differences between Islam and Christianity in her book 'Christians, Muslims And Jesus'. From a review here "Jesus is revered within Islam as the most significant prophet before Muhammad, and is seen as a key precursor in bringing the message of God’s unity and sovereignty to humanity. He is not, however, worshipped as God; and the ideas of the Incarnation, Resurrection and the Trinity led Muslim scholars to see in Christianity a surreptitious polytheism...The idea of the Crucifixion – that God could voluntarily elect to die – struck Islamic theologians, particularly of the Mu’tazilite school, as a paradox verging on blasphemy."

No meeting of minds there! While the charm offensive continues in this country, Muslims continue to persecute Christians abroad so the real problem remains unaddressed as Islamic influence expands unabated. 

Postscript [03.10.2015]

'Ancient Faith' Interview: Islam through the heart and mind of a convert to Orthodox Christianity - Part 1.
"In this two-part interview Kevin's guest is "George," who became a Sunni Muslim at age 14 and studied to become an Imam at a madrasa, studying Quran, Arabic language, Islamic theology, hadith, and jurisprudence. He left Islam and became an Orthodox Christian 20 years later. Among other things, Kevin and his guest discuss Islamic theology, common misunderstandings of Christianity by Muslims, differences between "orthodox" Islam and the Nation of Islam, the true understanding and practice in Islam of slavery and jihad, and the extraordinary journey that led "George" to Orthodox Christianity". Hat tip to Facing Islam Blog.

Postscript [04.10.2015]

More from the "Religion of peace" to "promote scholarly and public understanding of Islam":

Abroad - Christians fleeing Muslim persecution are finding just as much oppression in the refugee camps and shelters of Germany as they suffered in their home states. As the vast majority of asylum seekers are Muslims, many of whom have imported an adherence to sharia law with them, the few Christian co-travellers find themselves ostracised, abused, and even physically attacked. Full report here.

At home - A family who converted from Islam to Christianity say they are being driven out of their home for the SECOND TIME by neighbours who accuse them of blasphemy. Nissar Hussain, his wife Kubra and their six children claim they have become "prisoners in their own home" as neighbours attack them in the street, smash their car windscreens and throw eggs at their windows. Report here.

Postscript [05.10.2015]

'Ancient Faith' Interview: Islam through the heart and mind of a convert to Orthodox Christianity - Part 2.

Interfaith meeting to aid the spread of Islam

A study undertaken by the Muslim Council of Britain has analysed the 2011 Census
 to  reveal details of Britain's growing Muslim population.  Source: Mail Online

"The Muslim Council of Wales, an affiliate of Muslim Council Britain, is an accord of mosques, Muslim associations and institutions in Wales. It shall be informed and guided by the Sunnah in all its aims, policies and procedures".

From Wales Online: "Archbishop of Canterbury to address historic event in Wales at invitation of Muslim leaders. Justin Welby, will be joined by the archbishops of Wales, Scotland and Ireland in what is hoped to be a signal of interfaith cohesion...Muslim community leaders said they hoped the interfaith event at Cardiff City Hall, which coincides with the primates' visit, will send a message across Wales, the UK and internationally that inter-faith relations in Britain are strong, despite global tensions such as IS atrocities and the refugee crisis."

There is the whiff of Chamberlain's 'Peace for our time' about this gathering. The Muslim Council of Wales "shall be informed and guided by the Sunnah in all its aims, policies and procedures". That means no deviation from the Sunnah and the Koran, the spread of Islam by any means.

While religious leaders are engaged in conversation in Christian countries, Christianity is being crushed in Muslim countries. It is no coincidence that the main religion is Islam in the top 50 countries on the World Watch List of Christian persecution. This is explained by Dr. Peter Hammond in his book: "Slavery, Terrorism and Islam: The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat". In Dr Hammond's list the United Kingdom is shown with a Muslim population of 2.7%. (At 2% to 5%, they begin to proselytize from other ethnic minorities and disaffected groups, often with major recruiting from the jails and among street gangs.)

By 2011 the Muslim population population in England and Wales rose to 5%. (From 5% on, they exercise an inordinate influence in proportion to their percentage of the population. For example, they will push for the introduction of halal (clean by Islamic standards) food, thereby securing food preparation jobs for Muslims. They will increase pressure on supermarket chains to feature halal on their shelves -- along with threats for failure to comply) leading to "Which restaurant chains have gone halal – and why?"

Christian Voice considers halal products from a biblical perspective, something that Archbishop Welby should reflect on as he prepares his speech. The Bible is clear: Jesus said "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." He also warned about false prophets: "They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. You will know them by their fruits".

Religious choice is not an option for Muslims. The number of Muslims in England and Wales grew by 80% to 2.7 million between the 2001 and 2011 censuses but there is a belief among some of Britain's Muslims that "leaving Islam is a sin and can even be punished by death". An investigation for the BBC has found evidence of young people suffering threats, intimidation, being ostracised by their communities and, in some cases, encountering serious physical abuse when they told their families they were no longer Muslims. Check "which countries still outlaw apostasy and blasphemy" here.

In Muslim countries non-Muslims face death or are forced to pay a poll tax, the Jizya, if they refuse to convert to Islam despite there being "no compulsion in religion", a verse abrogated in the Koran. There is no evidence that the young able-bodied Muslims migrating to Europe have any desire to cast off the yoke of oppression. Indeed Saudi Arabia has pledged to build 200 mosques in Germany to accommodate the spread of Islam.

If Justin Welby wants to make a positive contribution to interfaith relations he should start by encouraging Muslims to show their solidarity with Christians by refusing to build any more mosques while Christians are being massacred and their churches destroyed.

Fat chance! Read on.

Postscript [30.09.2015]

According to a new nationwide online survey of 600 Muslims living in the United States, significant minorities embrace supremacist notions that could pose a threat to America’s security and its constitutional form of government.

The numbers of potential jihadists among the majority of Muslims who appear not to be sympathetic to such notions raise a number of public policy choices that warrant careful consideration and urgent debate, including: the necessity for enhanced surveillance of Muslim communities; refugee resettlement, asylum and other immigration programs that are swelling their numbers and density; and the viability of so-called “countering violent extremism” initiatives that are supposed to stymie radicalization within those communities.

Full details here.