UK non-Christian claims 'absurd'..[ 4071 ]

UK non-Christian claims 'absurd', senior Tories say

BBC.,23 April 2014 Last updated at 02:51 GMT Iain Duncan Smith and Dominic Grieve supported David Cameron's view of Britain as a Christian country

The UK is a Christian country and those who deny it are "deluding themselves" and ignoring "reality", two senior Conservative MPs have said.

Attorney General Dominic Grieve and Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith told the Daily Telegraph modern Britain had "Christian heritage".
Last week David Cameron said Britons should be "more confident about our status as a Christian country".
But a group of public figures objected and said the PM could cause "division".
Mr Grieve, a patron of the Conservative Christian Fellowship, said atheism had not made "much progress" in the UK.
"Many of the underlying ethics of society are Christian-based and the result of 1,500 years of Christian input into our national life," he said.
"It is not going to disappear overnight. They [atheists] are deluding themselves."
'Fundamentalism' fear Mr Grieve went on to say that there had been a rise in the "assertiveness" of some religious groups, which some people with "softer religions" had found "disturbing".
"I do think that the rise of religious fundamentalism is a major deterrent to people," he said.
"It is a big turn-off away from religion generally, and it's very damaging in that context."
Mr Duncan Smith said claims that Britain was not a Christian country were "absurd" and ignored "both historical and constitutional reality".
"It is arguably our Christian heritage, with its innate tolerance and inclusivity, that has ensured the freedom of all voices - religious or non-religious - to be heard and to be valued," he said.

 

David Cameron was criticised by a group of public figures for his comments on Christianity

Their comments come after criticism of Mr Cameron, who said people should be "more confident" in defending "Christian values".
A group including academics, authors and philosophers responded in an open letter to the Telegraph in which they said Mr Cameron's description of Britain as a Christian country had "negative consequences for politics and society".
The group, which included author Philip Pullman, comedian Tim Minchin and philosopher AC Grayling, wrote: "Repeated surveys, polls and studies show that most of us as individuals are not Christian in our beliefs or our religious identities."
They added that claiming Britain was a religious society "fosters alienation and division".
The 2011 census found 59% of people in England and Wales said they were Christians - down from 72% a decade earlier.
In Scotland the figure was 54% - down from 65% - while the percentage fell slightly to 83% in Northern Ireland.
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'absurd'  =   'παράλογο'

The radical Islam'..[ 4070 ]

Tony Blair: 'West should focus on Radical Islam'

BBC.,April 2014 Last updated at 06:30 GMT

 

Mr Blair told the BBC it would be a "mistake" to "forget" about the threat of radical Islam

Tony Blair will warn Western leaders they must put aside their differences with Russia over Ukraine to focus on the threat of Islamic extremism.

In a speech later, the former UK prime minister - now a Middle East envoy - will say powerful nations must "take sides" and back "open-minded" groups.
Ahead of the speech, Mr Blair also warned the West would pay a "very heavy price" for not intervening in Syria.
He said the opportunity to create "an optimistic solution" had been missed.
Mr Blair's speech at Bloomberg in London comes amid high tensions between Russia and the West over Ukraine.
Western leaders accuse Russia of using undercover military personnel to back separatists in eastern Ukraine - a claim Russia denies.
'Curiously reluctant' The former PM - now envoy for the quartet of the UN, EU, US and Russia - will say that Western leaders must "elevate the issue of religious extremism to the top of the agenda".
And they must co-operate with other countries - "in particular, Russia and China" - regardless of "other differences".

 At least 150,000 people have been killed in Syria's three-year civil war

He will say the threat posed by a radical view which "distorts and warps Islam's true message" is "spreading across the world".
"It is destabilising communities and even nations. It is undermining the possibility of peaceful co-existence in an era of globalisation.
"And in the face of this threat we seem curiously reluctant to acknowledge it and powerless to counter it effectively."
He will call on leaders to consider the "absurdity" of spending billions of dollars on security against an ideology which is being "advocated" in the schools and institutions of "countries with whom we have intimate security and defence relationships".

“Start Quote

Above all, we have to commit. We have to engage”

Tony Blair Middle East envoy

"Some of those countries of course wish to escape from the grip of this ideology, but often it is hard for them to do so within their own political constraints," he will add.

"This struggle between what we may call the open-minded and the closed-minded is at the heart of whether the 21st Century turns in the direction of peaceful co-existence or conflict between people of different cultures."
No-fly zones Speaking to the BBC ahead of the speech he said the West had a "responsibility but also an interest" in making sure that "huge struggle" was "resolved in the right way".
"However much people may think we can just push it to one side and forget about it, I think that would be a mistake.
"Above all, we have to commit. We have to engage."
On the issue of Syria, Mr Blair said he understood the UK's reluctance not to take military action, but he would have pushed for the imposition of no-fly zones had he still been in office two years ago.
"I know what the difficult consequences are of intervention, but if you look at Syria you see the consequences of non-intervention, and non-intervention there is something for which we will pay a very heavy price."

Κύπρος: η Θεία Λειτουργία στον Άγιο Γεώργιο Εξορινό ..[ 4069 ]

Κύπρος: Αναβλήθηκε η Θεία Λειτουργία στον Άγιο Γεώργιο Εξορινό

23/4/2014 8:46:19 πμ | Διεθνή

Αναβλήθηκε, «λόγω του εργασίμου της σημερινής ημέρας», η προγραμματισμένη για Θεία Λειτουργία στον Ιερό Ναό του Αγίου Γεωργίου Εξορινού στην κατεχόμενη Αμμόχωστο.

Σε ανακοίνωση της Μητρόπολης Κωνσταντίας-Αμμοχώστου αναφέρεται πως η εορτή του Αγίου Γεωργίου «μεταφέρεται για την Κυριακή 25 Μαΐου, ημέρα κατά την οποία θα τελεστεί Θεία Λειτουργία στον Ιερό Ναό Αγίου Γεωργίου Εξορινού στην κατεχόμενη Αμμόχωστο».