Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Right-wing Christian wingnuttery -- it isn't just for Americans anymore:

Christian group may seek ban on Qur'an

A Protestant evangelical pressure group has warned that it will try to use the government's racial and religious hatred law to prosecute bookshops selling the Qur'an for inciting religious hatred.

Christian Voice, a fringe fundamentalist group which first came to public prominence this year when it campaigned against the BBC's broadcasting of Jerry Springer The Opera, was among the evangelical organisations taking part in a 1,000-strong demonstration against the bill outside parliament yesterday as the House of Lords held a second reading debate on the measure.

Its director, Stephen Green, said the organisation would consider taking out prosecutions against shops selling the Islamic holy book. He told the Guardian: "If the Qur'an is not hate speech, I don't know what is. We will report staff who sell it. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that unbelievers must be killed."...


Note that the folks at Christian Voice are not above stirring up a bit of hatred of their own:

The Bishop of Worcester has criticised campaigners who issued death threats to BBC staff over the controversial screening of 'Jerry Springer - The Opera'.

...Security guards are continuing to monitor the North London home of Roly Keating, the Controller of BBC 2, who received threats from protesters. The homes of six other BBC executives were also targeted after Christian Voice, an extreme Christian group, posted their addresses and telephone numbers on its website....


More Christian charity from Christian Voice:

CV went on to exert pressure on a Scottish charity to refuse a £3,000 donation that would help cancer sufferers, because cast members from the Jerry Springer show had been involved in raising it.

National Director Stephen Green also caused widespread offence by declining to offer compensation to the cancer sufferers, and by saying that he wished to reverse the stereotype of Christianity as "a religion for women and wimps".


And here are some of CV's thoughts on Hurricane Katrina:

...What an expression of trust in God and holy fear of God it would be if the people of New Orleans told the abortionists, the criminals, the pimps and whores, the drug pushers, the voodoo priests and the homosexual tourists, "Your presence has cursed us. We don't want you back; we don't want your money."  And what blessing it would bring on the whole United States if the whole of that land followed such an example....

In England, gratifyingly, there is mainstream religious disgust at Christian Voice:

[The Reverend Dr. David] Peel [of the United Reformed Church] added: “Christian Voice has the right to express its extreme views, but it is as representative of Christian opinion in Britain as the Monster Raving Loony Party would be of mainstream political parties – and far less entertaining.”

In America, these guys might just be getting a heads-up from the White House every time a judge is about to be nominated.

*****

(I should point out that the bill Christian Voice is protesting, which would outlaw "incitement to religious hatred," is opposed not only by Christian conservatives but by a number of secularist groups, lawyers, and well-known entertainers.)

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