Free Republic

The head of studies at the Royal Air Force pilot training college is a convert to Islam who has criticised Nato air strikes on Libya in a Muslim magazine. Dr Joel Hayward is dean of the college at Cranwell, the RAF’s equivalent of Sandhurst, and has taught many of the pilots spearheading the military operation against Colonel Gaddafi. But, to the dismay of defence chiefs, he has cast doubt on the widely held belief that the Nato actions averted the mass killing of civilians in Benghazi. He also warned against the RAF becoming ‘the air corps of a rebel army’....

The Church in Wales says it is investigating after a Gwynedd rector burnt some pages from the Bible. The Reverend Geraint ap Iorwerth of St Peter ad Vincula Church, Pennal, also cut up pages from the King James Bible to create an artwork. Unveiling it at a church event, he said it revealed a "cruel and vile God". The Bishop of Bangor said: "Destroying parts of the Bible we don't like is disrespectful and will offend many people." Mr ap Iorwerth told BBC Wales he had burnt scraps of cut up the passages at the public event because he had...

Our isle was once a land of saints, but now there is a trend to consign all religious people to the dustbin of historyToday, under the old dispensation, which may yet return, would have been Corpus Christi, and at least in the Cathedral town of Arundel, it still is, and thousands of people will be rushing down to West Sussex to see the magnificent carpet of flowers and to take part in the solemn Mass and procession at 5.30pm. I, sadly, cannot be with them, and for those in that position, I offer some consolation in a reflection of today’s...

LONDON, June 20, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Despite Britain being an officially Christian country with a majority Christian population and a Christian heritage reaching back to the 7th century AD, the UK’s equalities chief has said that Christians need to “integrate” better into Britain’s “modern liberal democracy.” Compared to Muslims, he said, Christians are “more militant” and have a harder time blending in. “There are a lot of Christian activist voices who appear bent on stressing the kind of persecution that I don’t think really exists in this country,” said Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)....

We have been following the ban imposed on conservative radio host Michael Savage by England — barring him from entry into the country. England now appears to have reaffirmed the decision and accuses Savage of promising to retract some of his statements and failing to do so. While I strongly disagree with many of Savage’s statements, I view the ban as part of a disturbing trend limiting free speech in the West and particularly in England. In the communication below, Treasury Solicitor Michael Atkins tells counsel for Savage that he previously assured the government that Savage would repudiate some of...

There was a very sound priest active in the 80s whose name now escapes me (but I have his article from Catholic Order packed up somewhere) who stated that he firmly believed that we would see Catholic martyrs within the next 25-30 years. He meant, of course, in Europe and possibly, the USA rather than the world at large where killings of Christians has accelerated to over 270 each day during the last decade (see Joyful Papist). Can we really expect, now that the 30 years is up, to see Catholic martyrs in the prison system in Britain once more?...

Husbands living in a "harem" with multiple wives have been cleared to claim state benefits for all their different partners. A Muslim man with four spouses - which is permitted under Islamic law - could receive £10,000 a year in income support alone. He could also be entitled to more generous housing and council tax benefit, to reflect the fact his household needs a bigger property. Ministers have decided that, even though bigamy is a crime in Britain, polygamous marriages can be recognised formally by the state - provided they took place overseas, in countries where they are legal. The...

LONDON, February 2, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A prominent conservative UK columnist has said she received death threats after she criticized plans to insert homosexual materials into all subjects in the curriculum in Britain’s schools. Writing in the Daily Mail this week, Melanie Phillips said that she had been expecting a reaction, “which would amply bear out the truth of what I had written.” “The response, however, exceeded even my expectations.”For the last week, she said, “I have been subjected to an extraordinarily vicious outpouring of hate and incitement to violence” through emails, the internet and in mainstream media.“If the gay...

Daily Mail columnist Melanie Phillips has defended an article which suggested that gay people were becoming the “new McCarthyites”. Her column, published yesterday, implied that homosexuality would become “mandatory” and accused gay activists of trying to “brainwash” children. The article was written in response to plans to make lessons more inclusive of LGBT people and became a trending topic on Twitter. Ms Phillips told PinkNews.co.uk that she would always defend gay people against “true prejudice” but maintained that the gay rights lobby intends to destroy “normal sexual behaviour”. In an email, she wrote: “I’m sorry if what I wrote has...

Peter and Hazelmary Bull with supporters. January 15, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - It is illegal in Britain for guesthouse keepers to refuse to allow two homosexual men to share a bed in their homes, according to a ruling by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) in a test case sponsored by the country’s leading homosexualist lobby group. Peter and Hazelmary Bull, devout Christians who own a guesthouse in a popular holiday resort in Cornwall, were ordered by the EHRC to pay a fine of £1,800 each to Martyn Hall and Steven Preddy, two men who had booked a room in...

David Cameron has pledged that Britain would remain a "front rank" military power as he sought to reassure service personnel over cuts to the defence budget. The Prime Minister admitted that some "difficult" decisions had been made in preparation for the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) as he addressed staff at the operations headquarters for the armed forces. The Prime Minister is set to announce that the Royal Navy's flagship HMS Ark Royal and her fleet of Harrier jets are to be scrapped immediately when he unveils the SDSR later. One Harrier jet pilot, Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander Kris...

Tony Blair uses his new book to expose Gordon Brown as a manipulative figure who lost a winnable election by abandoning the principles of New Labour. The former prime minister’s memoir discloses that a “maddening” Mr Brown effectively blackmailed him while he was in No 10. He suspects the then chancellor of orchestrating the investigation into the cash-for-honours scandal. Gordon Brown and Tony Blair at a Labour Party rally The pressure on Mr Blair to step aside became so great that he admits he may have become reliant on alcohol as he faced coup attempts from Mr Brown’s supporters. He...

The recent global day against the imminent stoning of Sakine Mohammadi-Ashtiani in Iran for adultery is an example of the outrage sparked by the brutality associated with sharia law's penal code. What of its civil code though – which the Muslim Council of Britain's Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra describes as "small aspects" that concern "marriage, divorce, inheritance, custody of children"? According to human rights campaigner Gita Sahgal, "there is active support for sharia laws precisely because it is limited to denying women rights in the family. No hands are being cut off, so there can't be a problem …" Now a...

“If our Lord Jesus was around today,” says the youngest British prime minister in the last 200 years, “he would very much be backing a strong agenda on equality and equal rights, and not judging people on their sexuality.” Thus does David Cameron justify his support of civil partnerships for gays, an unusual position for a Tory.Cameron has done the creative service of rendering Christianity’s founder politically correct just in time for his new administration. The task of projecting the teachings of Christ concerning sexual behavior into the 21st century clearly required certain changes. Consider these updates to some key...

A UK TV station's commissioning of Peter Tatchell - a gay rights campaigner and critic of the Vatican - to make a documentary about the Pope which will air around the time of the pontiff's UK visit is drawing criticism. Mr Tatchell is one of the founders of a group called Protest the Pope that criticises the Pope's record on homosexuality, contraception and child abuse and says that he "is an unsuitable guest of the UK government", said a report on Telegraph.co.uk. British broadcaster Channel 4 said the 60-minute program will examine the impact that the Pope's pronouncements have had...

The contempt in which the Catholic Church and its convictions are held by the ruling classes of 21st century Europe is hardly a secret. For reasons of political expedience, however, European governments feel compelled to put the best face on such Catholic mega-events as papal visits. Yet every once in a while the mask of tolerance slips and the contempt can be seen for what it is.The mask slipped at the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in late April. The Pope is scheduled to visit the United Kingdom in September; the centerpiece of his pilgrimage is the beatification of...

Two Boots photo lab technicians who copied hundreds of pictures of naked or semi-naked schoolgirls from customers' orders escaped jail yesterday. Thomas Befroy and Alan Hermon hoarded the pictures of girls between the ages of 12 and 17 in a hidden compartment in the lab. Their collection of more than 1,000 photos, built up over 12 years using a machine in the store, included snaps of teenage girls on holiday or in their bedrooms dressing up before a night out with friends. The pair were only caught when a phone engineer discovered their stash in eight carrier bags and two...

VEGANS and teetotallers are to be given the same protection against discrimination as religious groups, under legislation championed by Harriet Harman, the equalities minister. Members of cults and “new religions” such as Scientology, whose supporters include the film stars Tom Cruise and John Travolta, would also be offered protection, as would atheists. A code of practice explaining the legal implications of the equality bill states that religions need not be mainstream or well known for their adherents to gain protection. “A belief need not include faith or worship of a god or gods, but must affect how a person lives...

As clergymen are warned they could be sued if they refuse to carry out homosexual "marriages" in church, what will the Equality Bill mean for religious doctrine?Eighty years ago a Scottish shepherd's boy won a place at St Andrew's University. A graduate of Divinity, John Ebenezer Brown went on to become a minister in Kirkcaldy, Fife. He was much loved by his flock – not least because he never let himself get angry. "I keep thinking of my father and how he never raised his voice," said the Prime Minister, in an interview with this newspaper a week ago. Even...

Attempt to end the “old boy network” Equality Minister wants businesses to be ordered to disclose what they are doing to improve gender equality in the ranks of senior management. Her move, which is backed by Gordon Brown, comes on top of provisions in the controversial Equality Bill that allow employers to give jobs to women in favour of men with the same qualifications. However, it is likely to be resisted by business leaders who resent more Government interference in their recruitment practices, and who argue that women are under-represented among executives because they value their families more than their...