Religious freedom is under attack in Britain

By Neil Addison
12 June 2009

I begin by referring to a story that some of you may have heard. A couple of years ago a crematorium in Devon removed its crosses on the basis that they did not "want to cause offence" to non-Christians and in particular Muslims. The subject of this crematorium was subsequently discussed in the House of Lords during the debate on the 2006 Equality Bill, when various speakers discussed ways of making crematoriums "Muslim-friendly".

Two points are worthy of note during this debate. First, hardly anyone discussed the offence caused to Christians by the removal of the crosses. Second, absolutely nobody in the debate was aware or bothered to find out that Muslims do not use crematoriums because cremation is against their religion.

The moral of this story is that one should never underestimate the ignorance of public officials when dealing with religious issues. When actions are taken against Christianity and Christian symbols in the name of a multi-faith society, invariably these actions are taken in the name of minority religions, but they are not actually done at the request of those religions. the rest-don't miss this!