History > 2006 > UK > Religion, sects (V-VI)

Young Muslims

alienated at home find solace at Haj

Published: 29 December 2006
The Independent
By Arifa Akbar

Yashir Nawab could hardly recognise himself. Gone were the east Londoner's spiky haircut, Gucci shoes and Armani clothes. Yesterday, as he wandered among the throng of pilgrims towards Mina, near the holy city of Mecca, his head was shaven, and he had grown a beard. His only clothing was a simple white robe, to signify all Muslims are equal in the face of God.

Mr Nawab, 28, is from Plaistow and works on the London Underground. He is a British-born Indian and, until recently, lived what he described as a Western lifestyle, staying out late with his friends, and often missing prayers.

No longer. For he is among a massive wave of young British pilgrims arriving here, motivated in part by an increasing sense of alienation in their homeland. He began the five-day Islamic pilgrimage of Haj yesterday, and at least 23,000 more Muslims from Britain joined him. They are part of a new, disenchanted generation who are rediscovering their religious identity. It is a spiritual journey, but the reason many have felt compelled to come has deep implications for multi-cultural Britain. They talk of rising levels of Islamophobia after the London bombings last year, and cite recent comments made by Jack Straw on the divisiveness of the veil.

So, while the Haj is a crowning moment of faith, a duty for all able-bodied Muslims to carry out at least once in their lives, the Britons joining this year's 3 million pilgrims are noticeably younger than in previous years, according to Muslim leaders. They are also more devout.

Crowds hundreds of thousands strong filtered out of the Grand Mosque in Mecca towards the desert valley, chanting Labbaik Allah Humma Labbaik - "Here I am O Lord" - and raising their hands to heaven. It was a remarkable sight.

They were hiking through an eight-mile desert valley to Mina, following a route around the mountains of the ancient city in line with a tradition established by the Prophet Mohamed. They carried with them blankets, food and water, and many stopped to pray at the roadside.

Walking with them, Mr Nawab said: "It is the negative hysteria in Britain that has brought me towards Islam. With what I think is Islamophobia, they are trying to break Islam down but they are just pushing me towards it. I want to preserve it. People are becoming less into Western culture. I've seen so many youngsters turn to Islam, so many young people are ignoring the Western culture."

Zahid Amin, the former president of Britain's Young Muslims, said: "The demographic of pilgrims has changed. Usually, parents in their 50s and 60s take the trip. Now, it's people in their 20s and 30s. Many feel they are under siege from the never-ending media stories involving Britain's Muslims - how 'ghettoised' they are, how separate, and how isolationist, what oddities a lot of young people are. "Younger Muslims are not feeling so Western no. I don't think it can be avoided, the negativity from the Prime Minister to Jack Straw, right down to Britain's newspapers, it is creating a feeling of alienation. Picking on a community so much while telling them to integrate will have the reverse effect - they will separate," he said.

His words were echoed by a pilgrim from Manchester in his early 30s. He felt "an implosion" within the Pakistani community in the city. "I have seen plenty of young people turning to religion to find their roots," he said. "It's an implosion as opposed to an explosion. If you have all the world saying all these things about our faith, you need to find out what's right and what's the truth."

Zenab Patel, 18, who works in a mobile phone shop in London, said her pilgrimage was also a quest to adopt the Islamic way, such as wearing a headscarf and praying regularly in Britain.

Islamic leaders dismiss any suggestion that young Muslims, however disenchanted, were likely to become radicalised during Haj. Inayat Bunglawala, the assistant secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "There's a big difference between a young person who is devout and questioning whether we in the West are practising values which we claim to uphold, and a youth who believes the West is an enemy of Islam."

At a time when Sunnis and Shia are warring in Iraq, Yusuf Tai, a British Burmese pilgrim, aged 26, said the Haj helped boost understanding."It was fascinating to see them together at the Kaaba. There are so many different facets to Islam. They were together, but they were all doing their own rituals. It teaches you to be more culturally tolerant."

And Mr Nawab? He was preparing for today's stoning of the devil ceremony in Mina. He will pick up seven pebbles and hurl them at a pillar, which represents Satan, and ask for forgiveness for his sins. The man who works on the District line is on a long, long journey.

The rituals

* The Haj: Five days of rituals centred on the holy city of Mecca, the birthplace of the Prophet Mohamed, aimed at cleansing sin.

* The Kaaba: The black cubic stone in Mecca, Islam's holiest site, which Muslims face when they perform their daily prayers.

* Mount Arafat: The site where Mohamed gave his final sermon in 632. The pilgrims spend Thursday here in prayer and meditation before returning to Mina for the stoning ritual.

* Stoning of the devil: The ritual on Friday, where crowds of pilgrims file past three stone walls symbolising the devil to pelt them with stones.

* Eid al-Adha: The Feast of Sacrifice is a celebration which marks the end of the Haj. It begins tomorrow.

Incidents of Islamophobia?

* Jack Straw, Leader of the Commons, angered many Muslims in October by stating that the veil is a "visible statement of separation and of difference" and said he asked women visiting his surgery to remove it.

* A Muslim classroom assistant suspended for wearing a veil in lessons was sacked in November. Aishah Azmi, 23, was asked to remove it after the school in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, said pupils found it hard to understand her.

* Between September 2001 and the end of August 2006 the police arrested 1,082 people on suspicion of offences under Terrorism Act 2000. Of these 664 were released without charge. Some 175 were charged with terrorism-related offences; 174 faced non-terrorism related charges; and 69 on immigration offences.

* More than 250 officers were involved in a botched anti-terrorist raid in June on the home of two Muslims, one of whom was shot. Mohammed Abdul Kahar, 23, and Abul Koyair, 20, were arrested at home in Forest Gate, east London, but later released without charge. The raids provoked anti-police demonstrations in London.

* Cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohamed published in a Danish newspaper provoked worldwide protests. A demonstration in London in February sparked outrage when placards gave out messages some said amounted to incitement to murder. Mizanur Rahman, a website designer, was later convicted of stirring racial hatred for carrying placards calling for non-Muslims to be "annihilated" and "beheaded" as he addressed more than 300 protesters outside the Danish embassy in London.

Jason Bennetto

Young Muslims alienated at home find solace at Haj, I, 29.12.2006, http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2110309.ece

Haj gets crowd control football-style

December 29, 2006
The Times
Michael Theodoulou

Saudis studied World Cup tactics

$1bn spent on improving safety

More than 25,000 Britons are among three million Muslims performing the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, which reaches a climax today when the faithful gather at Mount Arafat to pray for God’s forgiveness.Costly new safety measures have been implemented to prevent stampedes such as the one that afflicted the last haj, in which at least 345 pilgrims, including three Britons, died during the ritual stoning of a pillar representing the devil.

A Saudi team went to Munich to learn from the Germans’ experience of managing hordes of football fans during the World Cup, and the Kingdom has spent $1 billion (£500 billion) improving safety at the stoning site in Mina.

This year’s haj takes place against the background of growing concern across the Islamic world over the chaos in Iraq, violence in the Palestinian territories and war in Somalia.

Tensions have also increased between the two main sects of Islam, Sunnis and Shias, who gather together in the five days of haj rituals centred on the holy city of Mecca. The Saudi authorities said they would not tolerate any attempt to disrupt the pilgrimage.

“The pilgrimage is not a place for raising political banners . . . or slogans that divide Muslims, whom God has ordered to be unified,” Sheikh Salih bin Abdulaziz, the Saudi Islamic Affairs Minister, told pilgrims yesterday. “The haj is a school for teaching unity, mercy and co-operation.” About 50,000 security personnel have been mobilised to smooth the flow of people and guard against any terrorist threat during the haj, which ends on Monday.

Nearly 10,000 medical personnel are on duty and 21 field hospitals have been set up at Mecca and Medina. With so many people from so many countries gathered in such a small area, the spread of infectious diseases is another concern.

Britain has sent a team of doctors and nurses, as well as additional consular staff from London, to assist British pilgrims. The nine doctors, all volunteers from Britain’s Muslim community, provide medical care to pilgrims and keep track of ailments when the faithful return home.

“A stitch in time saves ten in future: if our doctors here diagnose serious diseases and treat them at an early stage . . . they won’t be able to spread in the UK. We are saving money for the National Health Service,” Lord Patel of Blackburn, who has headed the British haj delegation for the past seven years, told The Times from Mecca. He said he had witnessed “revolutionary” changes in safety and comfort since performing his first haj in 1971.

All Muslims must undertake the haj at least once in their lives if they are physically and financially able. Pilgrims are delighted to have made the intensely spiritual journey, but it can also involve hardships that serve as a great leveller.

“All have to face hardship, no matter who you are, you might have to sleep on the floor in the middle of the desert. Even if you are a billionaire you can’t buy all the comforts of the world here, so you realise what poor people are facing around the world,” Lord Patel said.

Equality of mankind under God is symbolised by the seamless white robes worn by pilgrims who yesterday trekked through the eight-mile valley from Mecca to Mina, tracing the journey made by the Prophet Muhammad more than 1,400 years ago.

Many were in tears as they raised their hands to heaven and chanted “Labbaik Allahumma Labbaik” (Here I am, my Lord, here I am).

Blogging voices from Mecca

‘Today has been a momentous day for many of us as our haj has now well and truly begun. It was a great feeling to be doing what Allah has commanded all Muslims do; especially when we were surrounded by so many people from so many different backgrounds, each with the same aim’


‘In order to seek Allah’s forgiveness we need to be fully aware of our own faults so that we can repent and try and ensure that we change our habits from now on. This is not an easy task, but it is essential if our haj is to be accepted’

‘I still can’t believe I’m going to haj. I’ve been on cloud nine ever since Dad confirmed the visa. Time doesn’t seem to move — I can’t eat, sleep or concentrate on anything . . . It truly is an invaluable gift, the best thing a father can give his daughter.’

‘Spoke to my brother last night. They were getting ready to set off. Mum and him have not been well and with mum in a wheelchair, it’s a daunting task. Inshallah, Allah will make it easy for them’


‘The sighting of the Ka’bah was overwhelming. I was awestruck by its magnificence; its beauty cannot be described in any other way except by pure experience of its presence. Tears streamed down my face as I asked for the Razamandi (pleasure) of my Lord’

    Haj gets crowd control football-style, Ts, 29.12.2006, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2522054,00.html

Foreign Office rap for archbishop

Sunday December 24, 2006
The Observer
Jamie Doward and Gaby Hinsliff

A serious row between church and state broke out last night after the Foreign Office rebuked the Archbishop of Canterbury for accusing the government of putting Christians across the Middle East at risk because of its 'shortsighted' and 'ignorant' policy in Iraq.

Writing in a newspaper yesterday, Dr Rowan Williams said the consequences of Anglo-American foreign policy have been the erosion of good relations between Muslim and Christian communities.

'One warning often made and systematically ignored in the hectic days before the Iraq War was that Western military action ... would put Christians in the whole Middle East at risk,' wrote Williams. 'The results are now painfully adding to what was already a difficult situation for Christian communities across the region.' Williams, who is currently visiting Israel with Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, said that thousands of Christians were fleeing Iraq every few months, while some priests had been murdered.

The Foreign Office, however, said that while the church leaders were entitled to their views, they were wrong to blame British foreign policy. 'It's not the policies of the UK which are causing suffering for Christians in Iraq or the Middle East,' said a Foreign Office spokesman. 'It's the fact that there are intolerant extremists inflicting pain and suffering on people. These extremists are indiscriminately killing Christians, moderate Muslims, Sunnis and peoples of all faiths.'

The row comes as the Queen today sends a special Christmas message of support by radio to British troops, praising the courage of those stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

'In Iraq and Afghanistan you continue to make an enormous contribution in helping to rebuild those countries and in other operational theatres you undertake essential duties with a professionalism which is so highly regarded the world over,' the Queen says.

It is the second time in recent years that the Queen has recorded a separate message for troops in addition to her annual 25 December broadcast.

    Foreign Office rap for archbishop, O, 24.12.2006, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1978528,00.html

Christians suffer for Iraq, says archbishop

December 23, 2006
The Times
Ruth Gledhill and Michael Evans

Rowan Williams warns of war's deadly backlash

Thousands of believers in Middle East 'at risk'

Christians in the Middle East are being put at unprecedented risk by the Government’s “shortsighted” and “ignorant” policy in Iraq, The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, says today.

In an extraordinary attack, Dr Williams accuses Tony Blair and the US of endangering the lives and futures of many thousands of Christians in the Middle East, who are regarded by their countrymen as supporters of the “crusading West.”

He has been backed by bishops across the Church of England, who say that Christians in the Middle East are now paying the price for the “chaos” in Iraq after the British Government failed to heed their warnings about the consequences of military action.

Dr Williams, writing in today’s Times, says that one prediction that was systematically ignored was that Western military action would put the whole of the Middle East’s Christian population at risk.

Writing from Bethlehem, where the number of Christians has plummeted to a quarter of what they were, he condemns the Government for failing to put in place a strategy to help Christians.

“The results are now painfully adding to what was already a difficult situation for Christian communities across the region,” he says. “The first Christian believers were Middle Easterners. It’s a very sobering thought that we might live to see the last native Christian believers in the region.” In some Middle Eastern countries where Muslim-Christian relations have always been good, he says that extremist attacks on Christians are becoming “notably more frequent.”

Dr Williams, who is visiting Israel with Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, Archbishop of Westminster, Bishop Nathan Hovhannisian, the Armenian Primate of Britain and David Coffey, the head of the Baptist World Alliance, returns to Britain today with a call for all British churches to take action to raise the profile of Christians in the Middle East. Dr Williams said yesterday that the Israeli-built wall around Bethlehem symbolised what was “deeply wrong in the human heart”.

Despite Dr Williams’s attack on British policy in Iraq, the Government insists that the strategy in southern Iraq, where about 7,000 troops are based, is bearing fruit.

Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, told The Times in an interview this week: “There is no evidence that the strategy is not still on course.” He said that Operation Sinbad, under which troops and reconstruction teams are devoting resources to improving Basra, was the key to Britain’s strategy.

The Government hopes that next year British troops will be able to adopt a “watching role”, leaving the trained Iraqi security forces to take over responsibility for Basra. “I think it’s highly unlikely that we will need the same number of troops to watch over the Iraqis as we have there at present,” Mr Browne said.

He insisted that the environment in Basra was “genuinely improving”. In October, General Sir Richard Dannatt, the head of the Army, gave warning in a newspaper interview that if the British troops stayed for too long they would risk exacerbating the situation.

Senior bishops threw their weight behind Dr Williams.Dr Tom Wright, the Bishop of Durham, said: “Nobody takes any notice of what churchmen say about these things. Now this has turned into a very sorrowful ‘I told you so’.”

Dr Wright, who is one of the Church’s top five clerics, said: “We have argued all along that what was being done in our name by our Government, led by America, would have disastrous consequences.

“The 64-and-a-half thousand dollar question is, what do we do now? We have made a problematic situation far worse. Even if there were changes of government in America and Britain, they will still have to cope with the chaos that has been unleashed.”

He called for the UN resources in the region to be strengthened. “Long term, that is what we must do because it is ridiculous for any one, two or three countries to pretend they can be global policemen in other people’s parts of the world. We desperately need a credible international police force.”

“As long as it is America and Britain doing the policing, local people will see it as Christian nations coming in and beating up Muslim nations, so it merely makes matters worse.” He said that the ensuing chaos could lead to a situation that was “worse than Saddam”.

The Bishop of Chelmsford, the Right Rev John Gladwin, said: “I am fully aware of the appalling situation in which many Christians in the Middle East now find themselves and would wish to give my whole-hearted support to the Archbishop.”

The Bishop of Liverpool, the Right Rev James Jones, said: “The Archbishop has done much to deepen friendship between Christians, Muslims and Jews in this country. We must pray that this friendship spreads.

“We face two further possibilities: either a conflict of attrition between the faiths or a settlement of peaceful coexistence. We must hope that Christians will find the same just treatment in the Middle East as Muslims have a right to expect in this country.”

    Christians suffer for Iraq, says archbishop, Ts, 23.12.2006, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2516916,00.html

Religion does more harm than good - poll

82% say faith causes tension in country where two thirds are not religious

Saturday December 23, 2006
Guardian
Julian Glover and Alexandra Topping

More people in Britain think religion causes harm than believe it does good, according to a Guardian/ICM poll published today. It shows that an overwhelming majority see religion as a cause of division and tension - greatly outnumbering the smaller majority who also believe that it can be a force for good.

The poll also reveals that non-believers outnumber believers in Britain by almost two to one. It paints a picture of a sceptical nation with massive doubts about the effect religion has on society: 82% of those questioned say they see religion as a cause of division and tension between people. Only 16% disagree. The findings are at odds with attempts by some religious leaders to define the country as one made up of many faith communities.

Most people have no personal faith, the poll shows, with only 33% of those questioned describing themselves as "a religious person". A clear majority, 63%, say that they are not religious - including more than half of those who describe themselves as Christian.

Older people and women are the most likely to believe in a god, with 37% of women saying they are religious, compared with 29% of men.

The findings come at the end of a year in which multiculturalism and the role of different faiths in society has been at the heart of a divisive political debate.

But a spokesman for the Church of England denied yesterday that mainstream religion was the source of tension. He also insisted that the "impression of secularism in this country is overrated".

"You also have to bear in mind how society has changed. It is more difficult to go to church now than it was. Communities are displaced, people work longer hours - it's harder to fit it in. It doesn't alter the fact that the Church of England will get 1 million people in church every Sunday, which is larger than any other gathering in the country."

The Right Rev Bishop Dunn, Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle, added: "The perception that faith is a cause of division can often be because faith is misused for other uses and other agendas."

The poll suggests, however, that in modern Britain religious observance has become a habit reserved for special occasions. Only 13% of those questioned claimed to visit a place of worship at least once a week, with 43% saying they never attended religious services.

Non-Christians are the most regular attenders - 29% say they attend a religious service at least weekly. Yet Christmas remains a religious festival for many people, with 54% of Christians questioned saying they intended to go to a religious service over the holiday period.

Well-off people are more likely to plan to visit a church at Christmas: 64% of those in the highest economic categories expect to attend, compared with 43% of those in the bottom group.

Britain's generally tolerant attitude to religion is underlined by the small proportion who say the country is best described as a Christian one. Only 17% think this. The clear majority, 62%, agree Britain is better described as "a religious country of many faiths".

ICM interviewed a random sample of 1,006 adults aged 18+ by telephone between December 12 and 13. Interviews were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults. ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.

    Religion does more harm than good - poll, G, 23.12.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,1978045,00.html
 

Devout Poles show Britain how to keep the faith

Religion has become an increasingly divisive issue as multiculturalism has driven the political and social debate this year. The Guardian's ICM poll reflects growing unease about different faiths, and over the past decade congregations at Church of England services have waned. But there are now signs of resurgence. Here, Stephen Bates, the Guardian's religious affairs correspondent, examines how the Christian churches are being revived ... and by whom

Saturday December 23, 2006
Guardian
Stephen Bates, religious affairs correspondent

A miserable, wet, Sunday in west London, sleeting rain blowing in gusts along Ealing Broadway: the sort of day to give church a miss and stay under the duvet. But at Our Lady Mother of the Church, a large, grey-stone Victorian building topped with a steeple, now converted to Roman Catholic use and run by the Marian Fathers, the morning congregation is so closely packed that it is difficult to get through the door and impossible to get beyond the lobby. West London's Polish community is at mass.

One little-noticed side effect of the influx of young Poles to Britain since their country's accession to the European Union in 2004 has been an extraordinary boost to Catholic worship. Congregations that were formerly waning have been restored and expanded by the arrival of devout young Poles from the land of Pope John Paul II and they may yet change English Catholicism for ever.

A church which was amalgamating parishes, having difficulty recruiting priests - even from traditional sources of supply such as Ireland - and was seeing declining attendances has suddenly experienced a dramatic infusion of new blood. Most English parishes experience such huge congregations rarely, perhaps only for the Christmas Eve midnight mass, where revellers from the pubs on their annual visit to church boost the numbers in the pews for one night only. In English churches where separate monthly masses are held for local Poles they are often better attended than ordinary Sunday services.

"It is the Catholic community's biggest opportunity and biggest challenge," said Francis Davis, director of the Von Hugel Institute at Cambridge who is carrying out a study of the new arrivals for Cardinal Cormac Murphy- O'Connor, leader of the Catholic church in England and Wales, and Archbishop Vincent Nichols, who heads the Birmingham diocese.

"In terms of its own life this is a huge opportunity. They are bringing new energy, new life and new resources and networks into the Catholic community. They are bringing a faith of their own that is so vibrant you can chew it. And they will have an unquantifiable effect on the whole debate about the future of faith schools.

"The challenge is in the mutual lack of understanding, not only between the local population and the new arrivals, but within the Polish community, between those who came because of Communism and the young economic migrants. There are 35,000 in the Southampton area alone - more than was expected for the whole country. "

Our Lady Mother of the Church is a little bit of Poland in London. Under the 19th-century stained glass Anglicanised saints stand icons of the Virgin Mary and Catholic stations of the cross - the 14 incidents that Catholics commemorate along Christ's path from his condemnation by Pontius Pilate to his burial in the tomb on Good Friday - now line the walls. The Marian Fathers hold seven masses in Polish each Sunday, the earliest at 8.30am, the last 12 hours later, three masses each weekday and five on Fridays and holy days.

For this Sunday morning's service the church is crowded with at least a thousand people: elderly men and women who first came to Britain during the second world war and never went home after their country was taken over by the Communists, middle-aged refugees from the same regime and young men -and some women - who have come to try their economic luck now Poland is part of the EU. Kneeling fervently on the tiled floor in the lobby during the Communion prayers, booming out over their heads from loudspeakers, are men in their 20s dressed casually in bomber jackets, jeans and trainers.

On the wall above them is a framed certificate from Pope John Paul II and in the little bookstall at the back, presided over by two grandmotherly women, are Polish papers, prayer books, statuettes of the Virgin from the national shrine at Czestochowa, English dictionaries and, incongruously, David Beckham's biography. The piety is almost tangible.

As the congregation leaves, people are already queueing outside for the next service. Marek and Malgosia, huddling under an umbrella, say they are pleased to come to mass as it keeps them in touch with home and everyone speaks their language. They have been living in Hanwell, west London, for a year, Marek working as an electrician, Malgosia as a maid in a hotel, sending money home and one day hoping to return to Krakow.

The figures are disputed, but more than 500,000 Poles have registered for work in the last two years, though it is calculated that up to 40% of those were here already.

Janusz Wach, the Polish consul general, said: "This is a new phenomenon. Of course it raises eyebrows that churches here are most of the time empty in the UK, very different from in Poland.

"It is striking for me too to see that the older members of the community here do not see how reality changes and the reasons for Poles to come here now are totally different from why they came. That's no reason to blame them for being here."

Coming from a deeply Catholic country, many of the migrants seek out local churches. The Polish Catholic Mission in England and Wales, in existence since the second world war, is busily recruiting priests back in Poland to meet demand: it now recognises 83 Polish communities and has 163 centres where mass is celebrated, many in areas such as East Anglia which have never had a Polish presence before. The mission's priests are spread thin: one for the whole of Devon and Cornwall, not many more to cover Wales. They spend their Sundays driving from one mass to the next.

Father Miroslaw Cukier is one such priest, covering Kent from his base in Sevenoaks. He says mass twice a month there, and monthly in Tunbridge Wells, Gravesend, Canterbury, Ashford and Margate. A priest for 16 years, he previously served in Nottingham, London, Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire.

"We have three generations here but most are very young. They are very often lonely. They come to me with their problems. They will go to Catholic churches and even other churches, not realising they are not Catholic, but they say it is difficult to say the prayers or understand the sermons."

At the other end of the country, in the diocese of Aberdeen which covers the whole of the north of Scotland including the Orkneys and Shetlands, earlier this year the church instituted a recruitment drive for priests in Poland. It now has five. One, who learned English from scratch in nine months, is now the parish priest of Fraserborough and Peterhead. The diocesan magazine now includes a page in Polish.

Father Paul Bonnici, a priest in the Orkneys, who is of Maltese origin, said: "They are bringing their own traditions and expertise with them. It all adds to the tapestry. We have Poles all over the place now, thousands of them. They are working in the fishing industry, agriculture, catering and hotels. The priests are very busy and they travel long distances to say mass."

Monsignor Tadeusz Kukla is vicar-delegate to the Polish Mission in England, based in Islington.

"In Poland there is a drainage of the brain," he said. "The Poles who come here are searching for a community, just as they are in France and Germany, Spain and Italy, and, of course, they want to fulfil their religious obligations. We think 50% to 60% of them are going to mass. They are setting a very good example to the English. Polish people are not saints but they are trying to be a good witness. You can see them standing or kneeling in the streets outside church if they cannot squeeze inside. I think they could bring good traditions here, bring back devotion to Mary, church processions for Easter and Corpus Christi festivals. They will remind the English of what they have lost."

English bishops are rather more cautious. The Right Rev Kieran Conry, bishop of Arundel and Brighton, said: "We have had a 1.5% increase in congregations in the last year and we assume they are mainly immigrants, either from Poland or the Philippines. This is not the church they left behind in Poland and we face the dilemma of how we can be of service to them.

"Many of them have minimal contact with our own congregations. I think the renewal of the English church has to come from inside, it cannot be by people from outside."

Behind the words of welcome is caution. The English church wants the new migrants to integrate eventually with English congregations rather than remaining in their Polish ghettos.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor said: "They should be seen as far as possible as contributing to the whole church and not part of it - that would be a concern. I would hope that, step by step, they would become more integrated. We want their contribution to Catholic witness and it will be more effective as part of the normal Catholic community. I would want that as soon as possible."

Pentecostalists

If you were asked to name Europe's largest church, a two-storey building between a bus depot and Hackney's greyhound stadium in east London might not immediately head the list, when set against St Peter's in Rome or Canterbury's crumbling gothic cathedral. But the Kingsway International Christian Centre - known as KICC - is not being modest when it makes that claim. It may even be right, as it estimates that it has 12,000 people through its doors to services every Sunday.

Amid perennial gloom about the long, slow decline in attendances at England's traditional white churches, almost unnoticed the so-called black churches with their vibrant services and their largely Afro-Caribbean and African congregations are growing exponentially.

The exuberance, fervour and numbers of their congregations are leaving the more established churches far behind. Take Esme Beswick, brought up an Anglican in Jamaica. She remembers the experience of coming to England in 1961 to train as a nurse in Kent: "There was a problem attending certain churches. In the Pentecostal churches you got a feeling of warmth and comradeship. Their services are very joyous. It is a great atmosphere with the songs and music."

Indeed it is and not just among Pentecostalists belonging to the charismatic, evangelical - and sometimes fundamentalist - churches, launched in the US a century ago. Pentecostalism currently counts as one of the fastest growing Christian denominations in the world. Across the globe it has more than 120 million believers, many in developing countries, and claims to gain perhaps 20 million adherents a year.

In Britain there are estimated to be about 1.7 million believers, which would put the denomination into third place behind Anglicans and Catholics. More than half of all Britain's Pentecostal churches have predominantly black congregations and half of them are in London.

David Voas, of Manchester University's school of social sciences, said: "Black churchgoers in inner London are an important source of growth in the context of the national decline in church attendance ... the Pentecostals have appeared out of nowhere in the last couple of decades, but it remains to be seen whether they can make significant inroads into the white population."

In the foyer of the KICC, where the congregation for the next service starts queueing half an hour before the previous service ends, the word of Pastor Matthew is everywhere. A poster announces that his on-air ministry is viewed by a potential audience of several hundred million across the world each week. Leaflets are being handed out, incongruously illustrated with the iconic image of American troops raising the Stars and Stripes at Iwo Jima, inviting the congregation to Cross Over and Take Over, an eight hour party and praise meeting spreading across New Year's Eve.

In south London, in his office above his church in a converted print works on Brixton Hill, sits Bishop John Francis, dressed in jeans, trainers and a check jacket. He runs Ruach Ministries - ruach being a Hebrew word for breath of God - for a mainly African-Caribbean congregation. Even the prime minister stopped by earlier in the year to acknowledge his success.

The bishop, 41, followed his late father into the ministry and was made a bishop by a chap from an affiliated church in Canada. "When you don't have faith, you don't have focus," he said. "We are a spiritual people. There is a change of culture in terms of the way God is presented in this country. We believe in using all the avenues that are available to us. We are on cable TV - it all helps get God's message of Jesus Christ out.

"I think a lot of traditional white churches may find it hard to connect with 21st century technology. I am very passionate about what I do: it comes out when I preach."

The message is likely to be firmly based on the Bible and scripturally conservative, although the church leaders insist that does not mean they exclude potential worshippers such as gay people. In Hackney, Bishop Wayne Malcolm runs Christian Life City. "I would say we are true to Biblical teaching in a very compassionate way. The Bible as written is inerrant. It is very clear to us that, while people wrote the Bible, God inspired them. Yes, I am a Creationist but the seven days were periods of time, maybe aeons."

It is an entrepreneurial church style. The pastors drive big cars and wear smart, well-cut suits.

Bishop Wayne says: "It is important for us that pastors do not give the impression that serving God equals a life of poverty, as has been the way in the traditional churches. Of course poor people can be very spiritual but so can rich people. The fact that we love the poor doesn't mean that we love poverty. Our people are already poor - they want role models and if the only ones they have are hip-hop artists and pimps what sort of message does that give

Christians in numbers

· 71.6% of respondents to the 2001 census identified themselves as Christian (42 million). One in four Britons attend a service at least once a month.

· The average weekly attendance at Church of England services is 1.2 million. More people attend C of E services than are members of all the political parties. Mass attendance in England and Wales is now 960,000, compared with 1.3 million in 1991.

· In 2001 a poll for Catholic weekly The Tablet showed that despite forming only 11% of the population Catholics make up 26% of all those who regularly attend a religious service. This makes them the largest denominational churchgoing population.

· A Christian Research census in 2005 found that 83% of Christians in England are white and 10% black; in London 44% are black and 14% from other non-white groups.

· Polish migrants have boosted the Catholic Church in Scotland, with congregations increasing by 50,000 since Poland joined the EU in 2004. Of the 400,000 migrants who have arrived in Britain around a third are said to be practising Catholics.

· The total number of monks in England and Wales stands at 1,345, many of whom are in their sixties and seventies. In 2004 just 12 men joined monasteries. Nuns total 1,150. In 1982 100 women entered a convent but by 2004 the number had declined to seven.

· A 2005 survey by Opinion Research Business found that 43% of Britons expected to attend a church service over Christmas, a 10% increase in five years. Statistics released this week show that 2,785,800 worshippers attended C of E Christmas services last year, an increase of 156,500 on 2004.

Linda MacDonald and Katy Heslop

    Devout Poles show Britain how to keep the faith, G, 23.12.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,1978044,00.html

Beyond belief


Saturday December 23, 2006
The Guardian
Leader

From Bethlehem to Blackburn - and, sadly, Baghdad more than either - religion, identity and the way politicians respond to them are shaping the first decade of the new century. Bethlehem, scene of the nativity, has been religiously diverse for most of the last 2,000 years, but now its Christian community is fleeing the economic damage wreaked by Israel's wall. Blackburn's MP, Jack Straw, thinks faith has become more significant than class. Yet as today's Guardian/ICM poll shows, this is not how the great majority of Britons feel. Most of us, of whatever faith, do not see religion as the most, or even a very, important aspect of our identity. Indeed, there is evidence that religion is viewed largely as a negative force, which some will see as a cause for anxiety. In some circumstances, distrust of religion in general might evolve into unjustified hostility to individuals because of their religion.

Our poll shows how far religion has moved from Marx's sigh of an oppressed creature to a potentially provocative stimulant to division. More than four-fifths of Britons see religion as a cause of tension between people, and three-quarters believe it stands in the way of an open, global debate. A significant minority believe it stands in the way of progress. It remains an aspect of who we are - nearly two-thirds of the sample regard themselves as Christian - but most of those did not think of themselves as religious. People of other faiths were only slightly more likely to do so. As priests and vicars will observe again on Monday, Christmas brings less than one in ten to a church service. Other religious believers might be slightly more observant, but even so, less than a third are regular visitors to a place of worship. These are just the headlines of a poll that, unavoidably, can only skim across the contradictions and complexities of the way Britons understand themselves and the religions of their fellow citizens, but they should be an important corrective to the impression that religion increasingly colours our sense of identity.

For now, at least, it does not. Ensuring that this situation continues should weigh heavily with policy makers, and especially with enthusiasts for faith schools. For politicians, religion can be a flag of convenience, a way of categorising people that avoids more difficult issues of race and class. Archbishops, returning from an ecumenical visit to highlight the difficulties of Bethlehem's Christian community, no doubt recognise this. But it was they who mounted the extraordinary lobby that frightened the government into dropping the clause intended to protect local communities from divisive schooling by insisting that at least a quarter of all pupils in the new faith schools were not from the dominant religion. "Who is more likely to defeat bad religion?" asks Tom in Mick Gordon and AC Grayling's new play, On Religion. "The best you can hope for is to turn bad religion into better religion." But, as assertive preachers pull in the biggest congregations, religious leaders cannot agree even among themselves how to respond to this challenge.

It is politicians, though, who create the climate that elevates religion's significance. It is they who assert that it is the "new class", a claim that contrasts unfavourably with the other fashionable cry, for evidence-based policy making. The evidence, not only from our poll but from research done for Downing Street itself, is that people regard language, law and institutions, not religion, as the defining aspects of their Britishness. The government must promote this secularism, not allow policy, even indirectly, that encourages rivalry between different religious communities, in which, as today's poll shows, committed and practising believers are in the minority. A misunderstanding of its significance must be neither motivation for a divisive course of action, nor an excuse for inaction - what might be called the sigh of the oppressed politician.

    Beyond belief, G, 23.12.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1978092,00.html

12.30pm

It would be out of character if I was drunk, says bishop

Tuesday December 19, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
Mark Oliver and agencies

The Bishop of Southwark today said he was having tests for amnesia following his infamous evening out at a Christmas drinks reception two weeks ago.

The Right Rev Tom Butler, one of the Church of England's most senior bishops, said it would have been "entirely out of character" if he had been drunk after attending a party at the Irish embassy in London.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme prior to delivering his regular Thought for the Day, he described a witness account of him throwing toys around the back of a stranger's parked and unlocked Mercedes as "very strange".

He was alleged to have announced: "I'm the Bishop of Southwark. It's what I do."

The bishop, who suffered a black eye during the evening and lost some of his belongings, told his congregation on the following morning that he had been mugged - a claim police are no longer investigating.

Today, he said he could remember nothing of the journey home after leaving the party, where he drank Portuguese wine. He said his Oyster travelcard records showed he used public transport from central London to his home in Streatham.

"I've had extensive medical tests, and they are going on. I remember nothing from the early time of the party until I got home ... it's very worrying, I still have amnesia," he said.

Asked about how much he had to drink, he told the programme: "It would be entirely out of character if I was drunk ... I really do defy anyone who's had too much to drink to make that journey."

Police were informed that the bishop's briefcase and mobile phone were missing, and he had suffered head wounds.

According to a report, Paul Sumpter, the car's owner, saw a man who looked like the bishop getting into the back of the Mercedes near London Bridge, close to his cathedral.

"I'm suggesting there are elements in that story I find extremely difficult ... how I could have broken into a locked car and set off the alarm," he told the programme.

Bishop Butler denied misleading his congregation when he told them he had been mugged. "The injuries were compatible with being mugged, and we all thought that's what had happened," he said.

He said he had been attending similar receptions for 20 years and that he was always "very careful". "Normally at a reception I will have a glass of wine or two and I enjoy talking with people," he said.

Asked whether he often got drunk, he added: "No I don't get drunk frequently. I wouldn't be able to do my job if I did."

The bishop said his briefcase had been returned to him days later, not by the police but by a national newspaper.

After the interview, the 66-year-old bishop later broadcast his Thought for the Day on the Today programme, speaking of the Christmas message of mercy and love to the world.

He referred to the forthcoming pilgrimage to Bethlehem by four British Christian leaders, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.

"The world is in need of a great deal of mercy and peace this Christmas, and the symbolic hope of the Christmas message is the little town of Bethlehem," he said.

"Sadly, this year, far from it being a sign of hope, it portrays the despair that holds Palestine and Israel in seemingly endless dispute."

    It would be out of character if I was drunk, says bishop, G, 19.12.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,1975379,00.html

Mysterious Ways

The changing character of Christianity in Britain

December 19, 2006
The Times

Britons have long been wary of demonstrative emotion in the practice of religion. An epitaph on the grave of a celebrated 18th-century preacher noted approvingly that he was “the enemy of all enthusiasm”. But exuberant displays are becoming a feature of religious worship in Britain’s churches, especially among the Pentecostals, one of the fastest-growing groups in this country. Once regarded as a sect, the Pentecostals’ numbers have grown rapidly in recent years, with a 30 per cent rise in attendance between 1998 and 2005 and the opening of dozens of new churches. Pentecostals have now overtaken Methodists to become the third largest denomination after Anglicans and Roman Catholics.

The Pentecostals are typical of the evangelical churches that, across the Christian world, are experiencing an upsurge of attendance and support at a time when the “established” churches are seeing an inexorable decline in their numbers. The phenomenon may be linked to the search, in a cynical and materialist age, for beliefs that admit no doubt and demand a commitment that is uncompromising. In America, the Southern Baptists have become a powerful political force and in Latin America Protestant evangelicals are making inroads into the heartlands of Roman Catholicism. Pentecostals command overwhelming support from African Christians, but have broadened their appeal beyond those of African and Caribbean origin to include many who seek a more spontaneous and ecstatic expression of their religious convictions.

Many churches, nevertheless, regard the Pentecostals with suspicion, as we reveal in times2 today. This is because of the central role that glossolalia — speaking in tongues — plays in their services. Indeed, their name derives from the feast of Pentecost, when the Disciples, gathered in Jerusalem, were inspired by the Holy Spirit to speak in many languages, enabling them to go out and preach the gospel to the nations. Other practices central to Pentecostal worship are also extremely vibrant, sometimes involving healing and exorcism, shouting and clapping, fainting, impromptu praying and prophesying. To traditionalist Anglicans, this seems dangerously undisciplined and can all too easily be exploited by exhibitionists and charlatans. Indeed, at their most extreme, these practices may come to resemble some of the rituals and trance-like devotions of animist ceremonies.

Nevertheless, there is no denying the fervour, engagement and sense of community in Pentecostal congregations. And these qualities are attracting young Christians of all denominations. Evangelicals in the Anglican Church and other charismatics also place value on the spontaneous and passionate expression of belief; and the experiential side to religion has proved a powerful motivating force for those determined to spread their beliefs and values in the world. What is sometimes overlooked is the enormous moral force that the Pentecostal churches have in Britain’s black community, especially among women. These churches, largely independent, are in the forefront of the fight against crime, drugs and family breakdown. And in the approach to Christmas, when a growing number are eager to re-assert the Christian heart of the festival, the Pentecostals are among those most committed to spreading and living the Christian message.

    The changing character of Christianity in Britain, Ts, 19.12.2006, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,542-2510988,00.html

Catholic church in new sex abuse row

Diocese is shaken as former altar boy takes legal action claiming that negligence exposed him to priest who was 'a danger to children'

Sunday December 17, 2006
The Observer
Antony Barnett, investigations editor


The Catholic church faces fresh allegations of turning a blind eye to paedophilia after an Observer investigation revealed that one of its priests was allowed to continue working despite warnings he posed a danger to children.

The priest, Father David Crowley, went on to rape a 10-year-old altar boy, whom he continued to abuse until 1995. Now the victim has spoken publicly for the first time about his ordeal in order to expose the 'scandalous' way he says the church has behaved. He has accused the Rt Rev David Konstant, former Bishop of Leeds, of failing to stop Crowley despite having evidence that the priest was a sex risk to children. In 1997 Crowley was jailed for nine years after pleading guilty to abusing boys for more than a decade.

Konstant was Bishop of Leeds for 19 years, chairman of the Catholic Education Service and headed the church's international affairs committee under Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster.

Documents show that in 1987 while Konstant was Bishop of Leeds, he was told of an incident where Crowley had 'facilitated' sexual activities between young boys in Huddersfield after allowing them to drink alcohol. A letter seen by The Observer shows that on 12 March that year, Konstant wrote to Crowley telling him that 'the grave scandal' means 'it will not be possible for you to work again as a priest in this diocese'.

A church report that month stated: 'He [Crowley] does not fit into the usual psychological profile of a true paedophile. The behaviour would not be too alarming in an early adolescent boy. In an adult [33 years old] who has a sacred trust and is a member of the clergy it is of course enormously serious and utterly inappropriate and a bar to his practising his priesthood. He has already been told that there is no possibility of his ever functioning as a priest in the diocese of Leeds.'

A later report concluded that although he behaved in a 'grossly unsuitable way, he is not a paedophile'. It said his behaviour was primarily caused by the misuse of alcohol and 'emotional immaturity'.

Rather than report the incident to the police, Konstant, who had suspended Crowley, sent him for 'counselling'. Within a few months Konstant helped Crowley to find a new post in Devon. He was made to sign a contract to restrict his contact with young people, but went on to abuse in Torquay and Barnstaple. Even though concerns were raised about his continued contact with young boys in the south of England, he was allowed to return to Yorkshire - despite Konstant's earlier pledge that he would never again work as a priest in the diocese of Leeds - and entered into another period of sexual abuse.

Paul (not his real name) was among Crowley's victims when the priest returned to Yorkshire. He was raped by Crowley as a 10-year-old altar boy. Over four years from 1991, Paul was subject to frequent sexual abuse by the priest who got other boys to perform sex acts on him. 'He wouldn't care what was happening,' Paul said. 'Even if there was a funeral taking place or a wedding, he would wait for his opportunity. Sometimes he would be very aggressive, pushing me down on the floor and assaulting me.'

Paul only went to the police in 2004 after he had plucked up the courage to tell his family. By then, Crowley was in prison. He had been arrested while working as a hospital chaplain in Bradford and was jailed in 1998 for nine years after admitting a string of sex attacks on young boys over an 11-year period. He pleaded guilty to 12 offences of indecent assault on boys under 16 and three of indecency with a child. In prison Crowley admitted to the police that he had abused Paul, but the Crown Prosecution Service decided there was no public interest in staging another trial.

Paul is now taking legal action against Konstant and the diocese for negligence, but they are refusing to admit liability. The church argues that at the time there were 'no allegations of paedophilic activity' made against Crowley and they took appropriate steps. Lawyers for the trustees of the diocese claim the events happened too long ago and they have been advised that Konstant is extremely ill and unable to assist. This is challenged by Paul and his lawyers who say Konstant has been involved in a number of public activities since retiring. Konstant, 76, suffered a minor stroke in 2001, but continued working as Bishop of Leeds until 2004. In July this year he received an honorary degree from the University of Bradford, where he made a speech and attended a dinner.

An academic present at the dinner has said in a witness statement: 'He appeared to have no problems in speaking or walking around. There was no visible indication he was suffering from any form of illness or infirmity.' In October, Konstant presided at a celebratory Mass to mark the 20th anniversary of the opening of St Joseph's church in Wetherby and last month he spoke at the reopening of the cathedral church of St Anne in Leeds. However, illness recently prevented him attending a special Mass for his successor as Bishop of Leeds.

Paul is furious at how the church has behaved as he has attempted to get justice and an apology. Two years ago he attempted suicide. 'The physical side of this was terrible,' he said, 'but the way the church has behaved since I decided to come forward has been even worse. It has been a kind of excruciating mental torture. Why don't they just say sorry and offer to help me and my family? They knew this priest was a danger to children but did nothing, and he went on to destroy the lives of dozens of boys, including my own.'

Paul's lawyer, Richard Scorer of Pannone, a Manchester law firm, said: 'Considering all the public engagements Bishop Konstant has been involved in over the past few months, I was astonished when they told me he was too ill to assist the court.'

The Observer tried to contact Konstant, but he refused to talk on the phone or be interviewed. He said: 'I have nothing to say about this. I am retired.'

A spokesman for the diocese of Leeds said: 'Neither Bishop David Konstant, nor the diocese of Leeds, has been asked whether the bishop's state of health prevented him responding to questions about this litigation. The suggestion that his health had become an issue has come as a complete surprise both to the bishop and to his successor, Arthur Roche.

'The Crowley case dates back to the Eighties and Nineties. The diocese reported the matter to the police when it first became aware of the allegations.'

This is not the first time the diocese has been involved in a sex abuse scandal. Earlier this year, The Observer reported how it had covered up the criminal past of paedophile priest, Neil Gallanagh, and gave him a job in a school for deaf children, where he went on to sexually assault vulnerable young boys.

    Catholic church in new sex abuse row, O, 17.12.2006, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1973838,00.html

2.45pm update

Blair to crack down on funding for religious groups

Friday December 8, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
Hélène Mulholland and agencies

Religious groups will have to prove their commitment to integration before being awarded taxpayers' cash, Tony Blair said today, as he reignited the row over Muslim headscarves.

The prime minister said it was "plain common sense" that teachers should have to remove them in the classroom, as he announced a crackdown on funding for religious and racial groups.

Mr Blair warned that public money had been too easily handed out to organisations "tightly bonded around religious, racial or ethnic identities".

In future they would have to show they aimed to promote community cohesion and integration.

"Very good intentions got the better of us," Mr Blair said.

"We wanted to be hospitable to new groups. We wanted, rightly, to extend a welcome and did so by offering public money to entrench their cultural presence.

"Money was too often freely awarded to groups that were tightly bonded around religious, racial or ethnic identities.

"In the future, we will assess bids from groups of any ethnicity or any religious denomination, also against a test, where appropriate, of promoting community cohesion and integration."

Mr Blair also re-entered the row over Muslim headscarves. The controversy was fuelled by the suspension earlier this year of a Muslim teaching assistant who insisted on wearing the niqab.

The prime minister pointed out there had been "fierce controversy" over the headdress in Muslim countries as part of a "global agonising" over integration.

"I know it is not sensible to conduct this debate as if the only issue is the very hot and sensitive one of the veil," he said.

"For one thing, the extremism we face is usually from men not women.

"But it ... really is a matter of plain common sense that when it is an essential part of someone's work to communicate directly with people, being able to see their face is important.

"We are not on our own in trying to find the right balance between integration and diversity. There is a global agonising on the subject," he said.

Mr Blair ruled out any introduction of Islamic sharia law in the UK and called on mosques that excluded the voice of women to "look again at their practices".

The suicide bombings in London on July 7 last year had thrown the whole concept of a multicultural Britain "into sharp relief", the prime minister said.

He insisted it was an idea that should still be celebrated but said it went hand in hand with a duty to share "essential values".

The prime minister said Britain was "better placed than most" to have a sensible debate on the issue.

But it had to be prepared to stand up and fight for the tolerance, which was its hallmark.

"We are a nation comfortable with the open world of today," he said.

    Blair to crack down on funding for religious groups, G, 8.12.2006, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,1967747,00.html

Revealed: rise of creationism in UK schools

PR packs spread controversial theory

Monday November 27, 2006
Guardian
James Randerson, science correspondent

Dozens of schools are using creationist teaching materials condemned by the government as "not appropriate to support the science curriculum", the Guardian has learned.

The packs promote the creationist alternative to Darwinian evolution called intelligent design and the group behind them said 59 schools are using the information as "a useful classroom resource".

A teacher at one of the schools said it intended to use the DVDs to present intelligent design as an alternative to Darwinism. Nick Cowan, head of chemistry at Bluecoat school, in Liverpool, said: "Just because it takes a negative look at Darwinism doesn't mean it is not science. I think to critique Darwinism is quite appropriate."

But the government has made it clear that "neither intelligent design nor creationism are recognised scientific theories". The chairman of the parliamentary science and technology select committee, the Lib Dem MP Phil Willis, said he was horrified that the packs were being used in schools.

"I am flabbergasted that any head of science would give credence to this creationist theory and be prepared to put it alongside Darwinism," he said. "Treating it as an alternative centralist theory alongside Darwinism in science lessons is deeply worrying."

The teaching pack, which includes two DVDs and a manual, was sent to the head of science at all secondary schools in the country on September 18 by the group Truth in Science. The enclosed feedback postcard was returned by 89 schools. As well as 59 positive responses, 15 were negative or dismissive and 15 said the material was "not suitable".

"We are not attacking the teaching of Darwinian theory," said Richard Buggs, a member of Truth in Science. "We are just saying that criticisms of Darwin's theory should also be taught."

"Intelligent design looks at empirical evidence in the natural world and says, 'this is evidence for a designer'. If you go any further the argument does become religious and intelligent design does have religious implications," added Dr Buggs.

But leading scientists argue that ID is not science because it invokes supernatural causes. "There is just no evidence for intelligent design, it is pure religion and has nothing to do with science. It should be banned from science classes," said Lewis Wolpert, a developmental biologist at the University of London and vice-president of the British Humanist Association.

The DVDs were produced in America and feature figures linked to the Discovery Institute in Seattle, a thinktank that has made concerted efforts to promote ID and insert it into high school science lessons in the US. Last year a judge in Dover, Pennsylvania, ruled that ID could not be taught in science lessons. "Intelligent design is a religious view, a mere relabelling of creationism, and not a scientific theory," he wrote in his judgment.

It is not clear exactly how many schools are using the Truth in Science material, or how it is being used.

The government has made it clear the Truth in Science materials should not be used in science lessons. In a response to the Labour MP Graham Stringer on November 1, Jim Knight, a minister in the Department for Education and Skills, wrote: "Neither intelligent design nor creationism are recognised scientific theories and they are not included in the science curriculum."

Andy McIntosh, a professor of thermodynamics at the University of Leeds who is on the board of Truth in Science, said: "We are just simply a group of people who have put together ... a different case."

    Revealed: rise of creationism in UK schools, G, 27.11.2006, http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,1957858,00.html

Veil row teacher sacked

Friday November 24, 2006
Press Association
EducationGuardian.co.uk

A Muslim teaching assistant who was suspended for refusing to remove her veil in the classroom has been sacked.

Aishah Azmi, 24, of Thornhill Lees, Dewsbury, west Yorkshire, was suspended on full pay earlier this year by Kirklees council and has now been sacked, sources said.

Last month, an employment tribunal dismissed three of Mrs Azmi's claims of discrimination and harassment but found that she was victimised by Headfield Church of England junior school in Dewsbury and awarded her £1,000 for "injury to feelings".

A Kirklees council spokesman said he could not comment on Mrs Azmi's employment status due to confidentiality rules.

Mrs Azmi's lawyer Nick Whittingham, of the Kirklees law centre, said the local education authority were involved in a disciplinary process against her but he was not aware that any decision had been reached.

Mrs Azmi said she was willing to remove her veil in front of children - but not when male colleagues were present.

Her case sparked a national debate on multiculturalism in Britain.

The prime minister, Tony Blair, said the veil row was part of a necessary debate about the way the Muslim community integrates into British society and said the veil was a "mark of separation" which makes people of other ethnic backgrounds feel uncomfortable.

The intervention by a series of politicians, which culminated in Mr Blair's remarks, were criticised both by the tribunal and Muslim community leaders.

The tribunal report said it was "most unfortunate" that politicians had made comments on the case which were sub judice.

The debate was sparked by the leader of the House of Commons, Jack Straw, when he said that the wearing of full veils - or niqab - made community relations more difficult.

The government's race minister, Phil Woolas, demanded Mrs Azmi be sacked, accusing her of "denying the right of children to a full education" because her stand meant she could not "do her job" and insisted that barring men from working with her would amount to "sexual discrimination".

The shadow home secretary, David Davis, launched a stinging attack on Muslim leaders for risking "voluntary apartheid" in Britain, and allegedly expecting special protection from criticism.

Last month, Labour MP Shahid Malik, who represents Mrs Azmi's home town of Dewsbury, said the tribunal ruling was "quite clearly a victory for common sense" and urged her to drop her appeal against the tribunal's decision.

Mrs Azmi's claim was brought as a test case under the new religious discrimination regulations, the employment equality (religion or belief) regulations 2004.

    Veil row teacher sacked, G, 24.11.2006, http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,1956263,00.html

Muslim leader sent funds to Irving

Islamic activist admits he donated cash to jailed historian who denied the Holocaust

Sunday November 19, 2006
The Observer
Jamie Doward , home affairs editor


One of Britain's most prominent speakers on Muslim issues is today exposed as a supporter of David Irving, the controversial historian who for years denied the Holocaust took place.

Asghar Bukhari, a founder member of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC), which describes itself as Britain's largest Muslim civil rights group, sent money to Irving and urged Islamic websites to ask visitors to make donations to his fighting fund.

Bukhari contacted the discredited historian, sentenced this year to three years in an Austrian prison for Holocaust denial, after reading his website. He headed his mail to Irving with a quotation attributed to the philosopher John Locke: 'All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good people to stand idle.'

In one email Bukhari tells Irving: 'You may feel like you are on your own but rest assured many people are with you in your fight for the Truth.' Bukhari pledges to make a donation of £60 to Irving's fighting fund and says that he has asked 'a few of my colleagues to send some in too'. He also offers to send Irving a book, They Dare to Speak Out, by Paul Findley, a former US Senator, who has attacked his country's close relationship with Israel. Bukhari says Findley 'has suffered like you in trying to expose certain falsehoods perpetrated by the Jews'.

In a follow-up letter, Bukhari writes: 'Here is the cheque I promised. Good luck, if there is any other way I can help please don't hestitate to call me. I have also asked many Muslim websites to create links to your own and ask for donations.'

Bukhari confirmed sending the letters in 2000. 'I had a lot of sympathy for anyone who opposed Israel,' Bukhari told The Observer said. 'I wrote letters to anyone who was tough against the Israelis - David Irving, Paul Findley, the PLO."I don't feel I have done anything wrong, to be honest. At the time I was of the belief he [Irving] was anti-Zionist, being smeared for nothing more then being anti-Zionist.

'The pro-Israeli lobby often accused people of anti-Semitism and smear tactics against groups and individuals is well known. I condemn anti-Semitism as strongly as I condemn Zionism (in my opinion they are both racist ideologies). I also believe that anyone who denies the Holocaust is wrong (I don't think they should be put behind bars for it though).'

At his trial this year, Irving said he had been 'mistaken' to say the gas chambers did not exist. He had been due to attend a conference hosted by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, questioning the 'truthfulness' of the Holocaust.

'David Irving was described by a High Court judge as a falsifier of history and a false denier,' said Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust. 'I can't understand why anyone would want to support his views, let alone encourage and influence others to sympathise with them. I'm appalled.'

Earlier this year, speaking on behalf of MPAC, Bukhari said a march in London in protest at the publication of satirical cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad should not have gone ahead. 'We believe it should have been banned and the march stopped,' Bukhari said. 'Freedom of speech has to be responsible.'

MPAC was banned from university campuses in 2004 after being branded 'anti-semitic' by the National Union of Students. It is becoming increasingly influential within the Muslim community. At the last election the organisation drew up a list of Labour candidates with links to Israel, whom it urged Muslims to vote out. One MP, Lorna Fitzsimons, lost her seat to the Lib Dems by 400 votes.

'Getting into bed with Holocaust revisionists who are the heroes of racist organisations which use Islamophobia to divide communities on racial and religious grounds is just extraordinary and very, very sad,' Fitzsimons said.

MPAC, which strongly denies allegations that it is anti-semitic, accused The Observer of 'twisting an innocent gesture of support (even if gravely mistaken) into more than it is'. The story was 'just another Islamaphobic attack aimed at undermining and harming the brave individuals who support the Palestinian cause and the cause of Muslims within Britain.'

    Muslim leader sent funds to Irving, O, 19.11.2006, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1951773,00.html

Universities focal points for radical Islamists, says minister

Saturday November 18, 2006
Guardian
Tania Branigan, political correspondent

Universities have become focal points of Islamist extremism and are potential recruiting grounds for radicals of all kinds, the higher education minister, Bill Rammell, said as he published new campus guidance on tackling Muslim extremism.

Campaigners warned that the government was risking "Islamic McCarthyism" after the Guardian revealed last month that lecturers and library staff would be urged to spy on "Asian-looking" and Muslim students, informing special branch if they were suspicious about individuals. Those references are excised from the guidance issued by the Department of Education yesterday, which says: "This document is concerned with recognising and tackling this form of extremist behaviour and protecting students, not with targeting or monitoring particular individuals or groups of individuals." But it urges vice-chancellors to consider whether staff could identify "violent extremist behaviour", whether they would know how to report it to police and whether they would be willing to do so.

"It can be entirely legitimate to hold a view that is radical or extreme ... however, it becomes unacceptable when individuals develop extremist ties that lead them to espouse, advocate or even undertake or facilitate violent acts that deliberately undermine good campus and community relations," the guidance says.

Mr Rammell said: "Violent extremism in the name of Islam is a real, credible and sustained threat. There is evidence of serious, but not widespread, Islamist extremist activity in higher education."

The report warns that higher education institutions can provide a recruiting ground for extremists of all kinds. "Student communities provide an opportunity for extremist individuals to form new networks, and extend existing ones."

It lists real cases - ranging from students looking at suspicious material on the internet to radical speakers visiting the campus - and discusses how they could be handled.

The British Muslim Forum welcomed the proposals, but said: "We would strongly urge the government to consider issuing similar guidance on tackling the anti-Muslim extremism of the far right, as this would reinforce the government's resolve to tackle all forms of extremism."

Faisal Hanjra, of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies, criticised the government for not consulting Muslim students. "The guidance, while improved from previous leaked drafts, will not solve all the issues. Nor does it give sufficient emphasis to concrete steps to improve good campus relations."

Universities UK, the organisation for vice-chancellors, said the document provided "practical and useful" information, but pointed out that it had previously produced a document on tackling extremism of all kinds.

    Universities focal points for radical Islamists, says minister, G, 18.11.2006, http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,1951235,00.html

Even in a time of terror, our liberties must be preserved

How far we are prepared to go to curb the threat of radical Islam must be vigorously debated, especially by Muslims

Sunday November 12, 2006
The Observer
Henry Porter

It is plain that the two great menaces to liberal democracy are Islamist fascism - I use that word without worry - and the reaction to that threat from either those who exploit it to reduce personal liberty or those too blinded by panic to consider the qualities that liberal democracy must retain in order to survive.

But Dame Eliza Manningham Buller's speech to a conference at Queen Mary College, London, cannot be ignored. We have to acknowledge the threat that radicalised Muslims present and accept that this not a scare story whipped up by MI5 to argue for more funds or tougher legislation. The director general of MI5 was quite simply placing the information in the public domain. That her address was made a few days before a Queen's Speech which promises to be packed with legislation to deal with terror and organised crime, that Tony Blair and John Reid are on the stump warning of the same things and that one or two feather-brained columnists have fallen in step with the anti-libertarian view does nothing to undermine what she said.

Thirty plots are being investigated involving 200 cells; there is an 80 per cent rise in MI5 casework since January; clear evidence exists that schools are being used to radicalise children and to recruit them; and support for the 7/7 bombers may be as high as 100,000 Muslims. If only half of this is true, it would be enough for us to say that the Islamist threat is a problem that colours all British society and affects nearly every area of policy-making.

There is no other country in the Western alliance that now faces such a determined challenge from within its own borders, from men and women who were born here and are now possessed by a pathological strain of Islam whose only purpose and chief expression is united in mass homicide. This death cult is as alien to British culture as Mayan sacrifice, but it is something we have to deal with and liberals must accept that there is no other sensible account of how things stand.

Faced with such irrationality, the temptations to become semi-rational are many. For instance, in response to 9/11, the planning and execution of the war in Iraq, though flying under the colours of a campaign of liberation, were not rational. The perfervid romantic mission of the neoconservative camp, with its visions of highly mobile armies bringing democracy and civilisation in less time than it takes to make a Hollywood film, was not rational. That madness has been exposed. Within the last week, the neocon case has all but collapsed, leaving a fair amount of wreckage in its path and an American presidency momentarily stripped of any coherent drive or strategy.

The temptation to become irrational in the fight against home-grown terrorism in Britain is equally dangerous. It's easy for politicians and their friends in the tabloid press to scream for ID cards and every possible form of mass surveillance without having to account for the effectiveness of such measures in the fight against terrorism. It is easy for the same people to avert their eyes to the internment and torture that have taken place since 9/11 and to mumble that the greater good is probably being served somehow. They are guilty of careless, impatient utopianism which is not so distant from the neoconservative position - one more push, one more law, one more restriction and we're in the promised land of total order.

It is doubtful whether this approach will do much to defeat terrorism, but it will certainly compromise the essential character of our society and that is important, because we stand for something that is greater than the threat we face. Liberals may have a hard time clinging on to these ideals through what is promised by the head of MI5 to be a long war which could last a generation. 'It is,' she said, 'a sustained campaign, not a series of isolated incidents. It aims to wear down our will to resist.'

Incidentally, if that last sentence is true, it is a grave underestimate of the martial character which lies just beneath the surface of this nation. But the main point is that we have to conceive a strategy for the long campaign, which balances rights with an effective defence against terrorism; in other words, a settled vision that would be constantly scrutinised and overseen, not by government groupies in the press, but by Parliament. And this strategy must include Muslims.

Isaiah Berlin once described liberals as people 'who want to curb authority' while the rest 'want to place it in their own hands'. The question is how much authority is placed at the disposal of men like John Reid without constant scrutiny. Are we to have blanket surveillance of every person in this country, their movements, spending habits and communications, on the off chance that one of these young men will be snared, or is this an excuse for the extension of state powers? My firm belief is that the gradual reduction of everyone's liberties is an irrational, if not a cynical, response to the threat we face.

But it is difficult to deny that the threat posed by someone like Dhiren Barot, who was sentenced to 40 years last week for horrific plans to maim and kill his fellow citizens. He was caught through excellent intelligence work which may have drawn on interviews at Guantanamo and may at a distant remove have involved coercive interrogation, if not outright torture. Where does that leave the liberal? Would we each rather be party, however remotely, to torture and so save Britons travelling to work from another 7 July or do we stick to our principles and forgo the crucial intelligence? The answer is simple. We must adhere to international law on the treatment of suspects and prisoners and it is not for us to break universal conventions on their rights. They were put in place precisely because of such dilemmas.

The striking part of Dame Eliza's speech was the lack of prescription. She simply laid out the facts, as the security service sees them, and invited debate. It is essential to have that debate, particularly for Muslims. If there are, indeed, 100,000 Muslims who cannot see the wrong of 7 July, then we are in trouble. The only people who can change this are Muslims, but there is no obvious effort to address the problem from within. The Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali, couldn't have been more bald about the Muslim community last week. 'Their complaint often boils down to the position that it is always right to intervene when Muslims are victims ... and always wrong when Muslims are the oppressors or terrorists.'

If the perpetrators of these outrages are Muslim - sometimes rather well-to-do Muslims, it seems - and the members of the 200- odd cells that MI5 is investigating are Muslim, it is not good enough for Muslims to fall back on bristling victimhood. To the rest of us, it simply seems nonsensical that a community which is the source of such a great menace, and which has offered support to it, can at the same time claim persecution. We need leadership from British Muslims and a contract between their community and the vast majority, in which the same ideals of peace, law and order are agreed upon without reference to religious needs. For this is not a religious matter; it is about law and order in a secular society.

Is this illiberal? No, and nor is the concern that Islamic faith schools are being used to distance a generation of young people from the values of the surrounding society, to say nothing about the recruitment that was described by the head of MI5. These schools are undesirable in the extreme and steps should be taken to end the separate development that they posit. But the government would rather reduce all liberties than be seen to target a minority.

They forget that one of the values of liberal democracy is discretion - the ability to concentrate the power of the state on a problem and make the distinction between those who are likely to break the law and those who aren't.

    Even in a time of terror, our liberties must be preserved, O, 12.11.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1945859,00.html

Some sick babies must be allowed to die, says Church

· Bishop admits right to life for newborns is not absolute
· Nuffield inquiry to publish guidelines on premature births

Sunday November 12, 2006
The Observer
Amelia Hill and Jo Revill

Church of England leaders want doctors to be given the right to withhold treatment from seriously disabled newborn babies in exceptional circumstances. The move is expected to spark massive controversy.

The church leaders' call for some children to be allowed to die - overriding the presumption that life should be preserved at any cost - comes in response to an independent inquiry, which is to be published this week, into the ethics of resuscitating and treating extremely premature babies.

The decision by religious leaders to accept that in some rare cases it may be better to end life than to artificially prolong it is a landmark for the church. The Rt Rev Tom Butler, Bishop of Southwark and vice chair of public affairs of the

Mission and Public Affairs Council, states in the church's submission to the inquiry, that 'it may in some circumstances be right to choose to withhold or withdraw treatment, knowing it will possibly, probably, or even certainly result in death'.

The church's report does not spell out which medical conditions might justify a decision to allow babies to die but they are likely to be those agonising dilemmas such as the one faced by the parents of Charlotte Wyatt, who was born three months prematurely, weighing only 1lb and with severe brain and lung damage.

The report also suggests the enormous cost implications to the NHS of keeping very premature and sick babies alive with invasive medical care and the burden on the parents should also be taken into consideration.

Doctors wanted to switch off Charlotte's life support machine because they said her severe mental and physical handicaps left her in constant pain with an 'intolerable' quality of life. They pointed out that every time she had an infection, staff would have to give injections or set up drips that caused yet more pain.

After the case went through the courts, the child, now three, survived but with severe disabilities. She is now in care as her estranged parents found it too hard to meet her 24-hour healthcare needs.

The church's call comes in their submission to the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, an independent body that publishes guidelines on how doctors should deal with ethical issues. The council set up the inquiry nearly two years ago in order to consider the implications of advances which enable babies to be born halfway through pregnancy and kept alive.

Their statement comes the week after one of Britain's royal medical colleges called for a public discussion over whether to permit the euthanasia of the sickest babies. The proposal from Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists was welcomed by geneticists and medical ethicists, but described it as social engineering by others.

In its submission, the Church of England said that although it could not accept the argument that the life of any baby was not worth living, there are 'strong proportionate reasons' for 'overriding the presupposition that life should be maintained'. 'There may be occasions where, for a Christian, compassion will override the "rule" that life should inevitably be preserved,' wrote Butler. 'Disproportionate treatment for the sake of prolonging life is an example of this.'

The church states that it would support the withdrawal of treatment only if all reasonable alternatives had been fully considered 'so that the possibly lethal act would only be performed with manifest reluctance'.

But it accepted there were a range of reasons why the final decision to withdraw or refuse treatment should be made, including the question of cost. 'Great caution should be exercised in bringing questions of cost into the equation when considering what treatment might be provided,' wrote Butler. 'The principle of justice inevitably means that the potential cost of treatment itself, the longer term costs of healthcare and education and opportunity cost to the NHS in terms of saving other lives have to be considered.'

Very premature babies run a higher risk of brain damage and disability. If they are born at 22 weeks, 98 per cent of them die, though by 26 weeks the chances of survival has risen to 80 per cent. Different counties have different policies for very tiny infants.

Babies born before 25 weeks are not given medical treatment in the Netherlands and in certain conditions, euthanasia is permitted.

When the Nuffield Council produces its long-awaited report on Thursday, it is expected to reject a Dutch-style limit, with hospitals required to let a baby below a certain age die, arguing that even two infants born at exactly the same age can vary widely. Instead, they are likely to call for much clearer guidelines to doctors about the issues of viability.

Parents of very premature infants will also be asked to start talking to doctors at a much earlier stage about the likely health outcome of their babies, so that they can be prepared for the worst.

The church's submission counsels parents against expecting too much from medics, and asks doctors to refrain from giving parents false hope. 'The principle of humility asks that members of the medical profession restrain themselves from claiming greater powers to heal than they can deliver,' it said.

'It asks that parents restrain themselves from demanding the impossible from the medical profession and indeed from themselves and their own capacity to cope.'

    Some sick babies must be allowed to die, says Church, O, 12.11.2006, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1945866,00.html