THE DANISH CARTOON ROW!
& a Christian response to it.

In today's Guardian newspaper in the UK
there is an excellent letter from Joel Edwards,
General Director of the Evangelical Alliance.

"In a week when many celebrated the defence of
free speech in the racial and religious hatred bill,
but then had to swallow the consequences of
liberty with the BNP [British National Party]
court case victory, we are presented with
another challenge. Islam is known as a religion
of peace. In light of the controversial publication
of Danish cartoons showing the prophet Muhammad,
here is an opportunity to engage with a bemused
public and sceptical press about Islam and to
recognise that in a liberal democracy arguments
must be won through engagement and not
intimidation. The Evangelical Alliance supports
the Muslim Council of Britain for distancing itself
from violence. As Christians we understand only
too well the pain still caused by seeing one's faith
ridiculed, but urge Muslims to defend their beliefs
through dialogue."

The letter can be found on page 35 of The Guardian,
Saturday, 4th February 2006.


Post-Script. 7th Feb 06.
I had a letter of my own published in today's
Guardian regarding the police reaction to the
slogans used at last Friday's demo in London.

"The police have been unfairly criticised in my
view for taking a softly softly approach to the
inflammatory rhetoric at what was otherwise
a peaceful demonstration. What would the
headlines have said if they had waded in purely
on the strength of the language used? It's time
to take a deep breath and calm down."