David Cameron was last night urged to stand up to the \u2018militant atheists\u2019 who want to deny Britain\u2019s Christian heritage.<\/p>\n
Leaders of many faiths backed the Prime Minister\u2019s decision to talk openly about his beliefs after it was criticised in a letter by non-believers.<\/p>\n
MPs also said he must not allow himself to be shouted down by \u2018aggressive\u2019 atheists who want faith to be cut out of politics and national life.
\nDavid Cameron faced criticism after calling Britain a Christian country but faith leaders and his own MPs have rallied around him in support<\/p>\n
The Prime Minister came under fire after a group of celebrity atheists said he was wrong to declare Britain a \u2018Christian country\u2019. Their open letter said Britain is not a \u2018Christian country\u2019 and argued that most members of the public \u2018do not want religions or religious identities to be actively prioritised by their elected government\u2019.<\/p>\n
The letter, signed by more than 50 celebrities, scientists and academics, including the authors Philip Pullman and Sir Terry Pratchett and TV presenter Nick Ross, also accused the PM of sowing \u2018alienation and division\u2019 and fuelling \u2018sectarian divides\u2019.<\/p>\n
But the claims were rubbished by MPs along with British faith leaders from the Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Sikh communities yesterday.
\nSenior Tory Gary Streeter, chairman of the cross-party group Christians in Parliament, urged the PM to face down his atheist critics. He said: \u2018These people say it is offensive to say Britain is a Christian country, but offensive to who? Other religious groups welcome the fact we are talking about faith.\u2019<\/p>\n
Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, said that to claim Britain was not a Christian country was to \u2018ignore historical and consti<\/p>\n
He said: \u2018Where do David Cameron\u2019s critics think our constitution, ethics and establishment come from?\u2019<\/p>\n
He added that as a Christian country, Britain had \u2018ensured the freedom of all religious and non-religious voices to be heard\u2019 whereas a secularist establishment would \u2018inhibit\u2019 them.<\/p>\n
He compared Britain to France, where \u2018secularism in practice\u2019 has seen the \u2018illiberal banning of some forms of religious dress and the suppression of religious voices in public debate\u2019.<\/p>\n
Farooq Murad, of the Muslim Council of Great Britain, said: \u2018No one can deny that Britain remains largely a Christian country, with deep historical and structural links with the established Church. The 2011 census indicates that more than 60 per cent of the English self-identify as Christian. We respect that.\u2019<\/p>\n
Lord Indarjit Singh, of the Network of Sikh Organisations, said: \u2018Christianity is the religion of the majority. It is not the greatest sin to say this. What is of greater concern is the letter in response, which says we are not a religious country.\u2019<\/p>\n
Anil Bhanot, of the Hindu Council UK, said he was \u2018grateful\u2019 for Christianity\u2019s inclusive attitude towards other religions and pointed out that many British Hindus even celebrated Christian holidays.<\/p>\n
\u2018I attend the Commonwealth service at Westminster Abbey each year,\u2019 he added. \u2018I gave my nieces and family Easter eggs on Saturday. Many Hindus celebrate Christmas, although they do not go to church, because they are living in Britain. As long as religion is not imposed there is no problem.\u2019 In 2008, Mr Cameron likened his faith to the reception of radio station Magic FM in the Chilterns, saying it \u2018comes and goes\u2019.<\/p>\n
But earlier this week, he said that he believed Britain should be more \u2018evangelical\u2019 about Christianity and \u2018more confident about our status as a Christian country\u2019. In an article for the Church Times, he argued that some atheists and agnostics did not understand that faith could be a \u2018guide or a helpful prod\u2019 towards morality.<\/p>\n
It was this intervention that prompted yesterday\u2019s letter \u2013 signed by 55 atheist public figures \u2013 denouncing his language and accusing him of \u2018fostering alienation and division\u2019.<\/p>\n
Tony Blair\u2019s former spin doctor Alastair Campbell went further by suggesting that Mr Cameron was faking the extent of his religious belief in a cynical \u2018tactic\u2019 to distract attention away from the resignation of Culture Secretary Maria Miller.<\/p>\n
Mr Campbell \u2013 who famously barred journalists from asking Mr Blair about his faith \u2013 said: \u2018Like so much of what he does it feels like a tactic in search of a strategy.\u2019<\/p>\n
But Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg said Mr Cameron was \u2018brave\u2019 to take on the atheists.<\/p>\n
\u2018The extreme secularists are an aggressive and unpleasant lobby and they have a degree of self-righteousness that the Pharisees would be proud of,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018They are not representative. People have in their hearts a fundamental belief in God in surprisingly large numbers.\u2019<\/p>\n
Downing Street said Mr Cameron had made clear as far back as 2011 that he believed the UK was a Christian country \u2018and should not be afraid to say so\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u2018He also added that this was not to say in any way that to have another faith \u2013 or no faith \u2013 was somehow wrong,\u2019 a spokesman said. Here are some of the 55 public figures who signed a letter accusing David Cameron of fostering \u2018alienation\u2019 by emphasising Christianity<\/p>\n PHILIP PULLMAN<\/strong> NICK ROSS<\/strong> SIR TERRY PRATCHETT<\/strong> JIM<\/strong> AL-KHALILI<\/strong> A.C. GRAYLING<\/strong> STEVE JONES<\/strong> DAN SNOW<\/strong> <\/p>\n Source: \u00a0Daily Mail, UK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" David Cameron was last night urged to stand up to the \u2018militant atheists\u2019 who want to deny Britain\u2019s Christian heritage. Leaders of many faiths backed the Prime Minister\u2019s decision to talk openly about his beliefs after it was criticised in a letter by non-believers. MPs also said he must not allow himself to be shouted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":14663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-14661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nTHE CELEBRITY ANTI-GOD SQUAD<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nThe author, pictured, received hate mail for his book, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ but said he was \u2018trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief\u2019.<\/p>\n
\nThe former Crimewatch presenter is said to believe that religion has \u2018enslaved and crushed as many as it has enlightened\u2019.<\/p>\n
\nNow suffering from Alzheimer\u2019s, the author supports legalising assisted death, but his documentary on the subject was criticised by religious leaders as \u2018propaganda\u2019.<\/p>\n
\nThe letter\u2019s lead signatory, the Iraqi born physicist and author is current president of the British Humanist Association.<\/p>\n
\nPhilosopher, atheist and author of The Good Book – which has been described as \u2018a secular bible\u2019.<\/p>\n
\nA geneticist, former head of the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment at University College London and member of British Humanist Association.<\/p>\n
\nThe television historian was married by The Bishop of Liverpool, James Jones, in 2012 \u2013 but said he was allowed to \u2018take God out of my vows\u2019.<\/p>\n