• Statement on the Christchurch Terror Attacks Against Muslims

    Glasgow in Scotland and Christchurch in New Zealand are linked by the fact that each contains a cathedral built to an identical design.

    Christ Church Cathedral and St Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow were built to identical plans.

    Christian hearts and Muslim hearts are made to the same design as one another. Today we weep for all those who are victims of terror and intimidation.

    Sadly, we are joined together in being broken-hearted at the news of the callous attacks against Muslim communities in Christ Church.

    Christians follow teachings which encourage them to welcome strangers. There is no anti-immigrant rhetoric that can be called Christian.

    Any attack on people at worship diminishes us all.
    Any attack on people at worship is an attack on civilization.
    Any attack on people because they are of the Muslim faith is utterly wrong.

    My love and prayers go to the Muslim communities directly affected by this tragedy and to our own Muslim friends in Glasgow.

    There is only one God and the God whom we all worship has compassion on all who mourn.

One response to “British Values and Education”

  1. Alan McManus Avatar

    A friend of mine, blogging about Remembrance, remembered that: “[t]he Lancet estimated that over one million people were killed in our invasion of Iraq” (http://www.2ndcouncilhouse.co.uk/blog/2013/12/05/their-blood-runs-red/). There is no link between progressive values and the UK. We hide or deny our state sponsored genocide and torture, as British imperialism has always done. The Amritsar Massacre was not an anomaly but our modus operandi (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/apr/23/british-empire-crimes-ignore-atrocities). Our much-vaunted kindness to animals, surely the most heart-warming of ‘British’ values, along with our famous fairness, is not compromised by fox-hunting rather, as we torture animals to death in every university it is seen for the sentimentality that it is. Those of us who are not naive to the real motivation of this animal torture (exactly the same as the human torture) know that ‘getting in-vivo experience on my CV’ (as a friend of mine put it) is attractive to those who seek the material gain and prestige accompanying advancement in Academia. The eventual aid to humans of a tiny proportion of this sadistically inflicted pain is convenient – and keeps the funding flowing. All these values we can wrap up in the Union Jack. And then set it on fire. when these values can no longer be associated with that flag and when the explicitly anti-RC Act of Settlement is repealed and when liberal clergy have successfully railed against the sectarian marches (http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/orange-order-and-glasgow-council-at-war-over-marches.20248665) so that citizens and visitors can walk down (and across) the streets of our cities any tine they like wearing any colours they like, then AND ONLY THEN is it the time to talk about forcing parents and guardians to pay a premium if the values they want their children to be educated in differ from those of the British state.

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