LONDON
UK Prime Minister David Cameron has caused controversy after declaring that Britain was a “Christian country”.
Writing in an Anglican publication, Church Times, earlier this month he said: “Crucially, the Christian values of responsibility, hard work, charity, compassion, humility and love are shared by people of every faith and none – and we should be confident in standing up to defend them.”
“Some people feel that in this ever more secular age we shouldn't talk about these things. I completely disagree. I believe we should be more confident about our status as a Christian country, more ambitious about expanding the role of faith-based organisations, and, frankly, more evangelical about a faith that compels us to get out there and make a difference to people's lives,” he wrote.
However, more than 50 prominent public figures have signed an open letter to the prime minister entitled “Britain is not a ‘Christian country’” saying Cameron’s claim “fosters alienation and division in our society”.
Adding further controversy to the issue was Jack Straw, the former U.K. Foreign Secretary who backed the Conservative leader. Speaking to the BBC on Monday he said: “There has to be a clear understanding that this is the U.K. and there are a set of values, some of which I would say … are indeed Christian-based, whether they like it or not, which permeate our sense of citizenship.”
The controversy follows reports of an alleged by some Muslim radicals to take over schools in Birmingham after an anonymous letter surfaced, outlining a ‘Trojan horse’ plot. Twenty-five institutions are currently been investigated by a schools watchdog.
Straw added: “We have a large Muslim population in this country, and it’s almost inevitable that people will tend to live in areas next door to people like themselves.
We already have a number of areas where most of the children, and in some cases 100 per cent of the children, in the school are of the Muslim faith. That’s something we have to cope with,” Straw added.
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