Wednesday, February 22, 2012


Surprise! Surprise! Christian carer who refused to work on Sundays 'denied rights given to a Muslim allowed to visit mosque'

A Christian care worker was forced from her job for refusing to work on Sundays even though a Muslim colleague had time off on Fridays to visit the mosque, a tribunal heard yesterday.

Celestina Mba, 57, claims she was threatened with disciplinary action after telling her employer her church duties came first.

In her evidence, she said she felt so intimidated by bosses at Brightwell children’s home in Morden, South London, that she had to resign.

‘I was willing to work at any unsocial time of shift in order to preserve my Sundays, I was prepared to work nights, or Saturdays,’ she said.

‘I would have been willing to consider any hours of work, or even a reduction in pay. I believe that my employer did not want to compromise and saw the issue as a question of management power with disrespect to the Christian faith. I have been treated very badly.’

Miss Mba, who has three grown-up children, is suing Merton council for constructive dismissal on the grounds of religious discrimination.

London South Employment Tribunal heard Miss Mba worships every Sunday at her Baptist church and is part of the ministry team visiting hospitals and providing pastoral care for young women.

She said that at her job interview in May 2007 she told her manager John Deegan she was unable to work Sundays, a request he said he could ‘work around’. But seven months into the job she was told she had to cover Sundays.

Miss Mba said she launched an official complaint and tried to come up with solutions to the problem but felt her bosses were being obstructive.

The tribunal heard she arranged shift swaps with colleagues, only for this to be blocked by management.

In January 2010, Miss Mba was called to a disciplinary hearing after refusing to work a Sunday shift she had not obtained cover for. She resigned four months later and has not been able to find work since.

She claims that despite stopping her going to church, the same managers were happy to allow a Muslim member of staff to attend mosque every Friday.

Mr Deegan, who also gave evidence, told the tribunal he did not believe Miss Mba had specified she could not work Sundays and said he did not know of any Muslim employee being given special treatment. The hearing continues.

Last week, Baroness Warsi, Tory Party chairman, said a ‘liberal elite’ was attempting to downgrade the importance of religion in public life.

Andrea Williams, of the Christian Legal Centre, which is fighting Miss Mba’s claim, said: ‘This is another example of Christianity being marginalised in public life. The issue could have been easy to resolve by way of a common sense approach.

‘Increasingly, we see a readiness among employers to accommodate other religions but Christianity seems to be fair game.’

Employment laws do not give Christians the right to Sunday off but bosses must justify Sunday working as a ‘legitimate business need’.

SOURCE






We'll stand up for the majority: Minister signals an end to multiculturalism

The English language and Christian faith will be restored to the centre of public life, ministers are to pledge today. Eric Pickles will praise the traditions and heritage of ‘the majority’ and describe multiculturalism as the politics of division.

Public bodies should no longer ‘bend over backwards’ to translate documents into dozens of languages and migrants must be asked to learn English and understand the British way of life, the Communities Secretary will say. Children should be educated in a ‘common culture’, promoting a British identity that crosses class, colour and creed.

Events such as the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics should be used to celebrate traditional culture and ‘fly the flags of Britain’ with pride.

Mr Pickles was speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail ahead of today’s announcement of a new strategy on community cohesion and integration.

He said the last Labour government and Harriet Harman, who was its equalities minister, had ‘encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each other and the mainstream’.

The minister said the Coalition celebrated Britain’s tradition as a nation of ‘tolerance’ and insisted he was proud to celebrate the special customs and practices that make communities unique. ‘But it’s sad to see how, in recent years, the idea of tolerance has become twisted,’ Mr Pickles added.

‘A few people, a handful of activists, have insisted that it isn’t enough simply to celebrate the beliefs of minority communities; they want to disown the traditions and heritage of the majority, including the Christian faith and the English language.

‘In recent years we’ve seen public bodies bending over backwards to translate documents up to and including their annual report into a variety of foreign languages.

‘We’ve seen men and women disciplined for wearing modest symbols of Christian faith at work, and we’ve seen legal challenges to councils opening their proceedings with prayers, a tradition that goes back generations, brings comfort to many and hurts no one. ‘This is the politics of division.’

Mr Pickles said political correctness had replaced common sense and left millions of people afraid to express legitimate concerns and frustrations. ‘We need a new approach: one that emphasises what we have in common rather than difference,’ he added.

‘Harriet Harman was leading the country down the wrong path. If we are to remain a country where people of different backgrounds feel at ease and get along, we need more confidence in our national traditions. We need to draw a line. ‘We must be unafraid to insist on the common ground and common values we all share.

‘It’s right to stand up for the right of councils who wish to start their proceedings with a prayer. If we want people of all faiths to feel at home and able to contribute here, the last thing we should be doing is knocking Christianity.

‘By the same token, it’s right to ask new migrants to demonstrate a grasp of the English language and an understanding of British traditions. It would be plain unkind is to encourage people to come here without the basic skills and understanding that are vital to getting on in a job, in education and the local community.’

Far from seeing religion as a problem that needs to be solved, ministers regard it as part of the solution, according to Government sources.

The days of the state trying to suppress Christianity – and other faiths – should be over, they said, with the Government aiming to use neighbourhood schemes and other projects to bring different faiths together. Today’s strategy will say the Government believes in certain values and ‘will actively promote them’ – including freedom of speech, freedom of worship, democracy and the rule of law.

It will pledge to challenge extremism in all its forms and tackle those who spread ‘hatred and division’. Ministers plan to marginalise extremist behaviour and improve the recording of hate crime against the Muslim and Jewish communities.

Requiring incomers to learn English, ministers will say, will help improve social mobility.

‘We want to help people realise their potential to get on in life. It’s not about where you are from, but where you are going. We want immigrants to speak the language of their new home,’ said a Government source. ‘People should be educated in elements of a common culture and curriculum.’

SOURCE





Flemish Politician, Daughter Receive Death Threats Over Muslim Veil & Bikini Ad Campaign

Typical Muslim behaviour. Violence and aggression is all they know

A Flemish nationalist politician in Belgium said he and his daughter have received death threats after she posed in a Muslim veil and bikini as part of his “Women Against Islamization” campaign.

Filip Dewinter, head of the far-right Vlaams Belang — or “Flemish Interest” party — used a photo of his 19-year-old daughter An-Sofie wearing only a niqab — a face-covering Islamic veil — and cloak over her swimsuit-clad body in the campaign earlier this month, the Daily Mail reported. Across her chest is the message “Freedom or Islam?“ and ”You choose!” over her hips.

According to NBC News, Vlaams Belang advocates strict immigration limits and believes new arrivals to the country should adopt the Flemish language and culture. The point of the campaign, the Daily Mail said, is to convince Belgian women to take a stand against Islam:
Ms Dewinter told the Belgian press she does not feel used by the party. She said: ‘I’ve suggested (the poster) myself, I have learned to live with it but I have had everything up to death threats made at me.’

She said that she ‘ wanted to make this statement.’ She added: ‘What is the greatest contrast with a niqab? Nude. ‘The campaign fits in perfectly with how I feel about the whole issue. As women, we must choose: freedom or Islam.’

Since the campaign started, Filip Dewinter told Fox News, he and An-Sofie have received hate mail and death threats.

“There were some threats, yes of course, and I’m very worried about them,” he said. “But nevertheless if nobody speaks up — she’s a grown up girl, she’s 20 years old.”

For her part, An-Sofie seemed to brush off any possible danger. “It doesn’t scare me,” she told Fox News. “I don‘t think they’re serious. I hope not.”

SOURCE





Is Newsweek Redeeming Itself Or Is It Just An Aberration?

Newsweek has been at the vanguard of the liberal mainstream media. Often these media outlets compete to see who is more anti-Christian. Through the years, many of them have led with sensational [yet historically questionable] headlines regarding Christ and Christianity. These headlines range from the denial of the resurrection of Jesus to the denial of the virgin birth, all the way to the denial of Jesus’ existence.

That is why some faithful, Bible-believing, intellectual Christians have been pleasantly surprised by Newsweek’s headline in the February 13, 2012 issue, “The War on Christians.” Wow! Someone woke up and is finally beginning to see the truth.

What was even more pleasantly surprising was the writer’s absolute candor, not only in exposing the widespread persecution and killing of Christians from Nigeria to Egypt to Pakistan to Indonesia, but in exposing the deliberate closing of the eyes on the part of her fellow mainline Western media.

In this masterpiece by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, she exposed how Islamists led by Saudi Arabia and the Council on American-Islamic Relations [CAIR] “over the past decade...have been remarkably successful in persuading leading public figures and journalists in the West to think of each and every example of perceived anti-Muslim discrimination as an expression of a systematic and sinister derangement called ‘Islamophobia’ – a term that is meant to elicit the same moral disapproval as xenophobia or homophobia.”

Truth-seeking Christians have been screaming from the top of their lungs, hoping that someone would listen and examine this propaganda by CAIR as being nothing short of mind control. While examples of Islamophobia are reported repeatedly, the killing and beheading of Christians in the Muslim world brings nary a peep out of them.

Speaking of mind control, CAIR has single-handedly derailed Christian speakers from appearing in military Christian functions. From the denial of General Boykin speaking at the West Point prayer breakfast to Franklin Graham being denied a speaking opportunity at the Pentagon, CAIR now exerts great power on the Obama administration.

Newsweek’s expose, while indeed a welcome breath of fresh air in an Islamist fog choking Western media culture, only touches the tip of the iceberg of what is going on in the war of Islamists on Christians.

May it be that the truth is now beginning to seep out, and may it be that other mainstream media outlets begin to open their blind eyes and see the truth clearly.

SOURCE

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Political correctness is most pervasive in universities and colleges but I rarely report the incidents concerned here as I have a separate blog for educational matters.

American "liberals" often deny being Leftists and say that they are very different from the Communist rulers of other countries. The only real difference, however, is how much power they have. In America, their power is limited by democracy. To see what they WOULD be like with more power, look at where they ARE already very powerful: in America's educational system -- particularly in the universities and colleges. They show there the same respect for free-speech and political diversity that Stalin did: None. So look to the colleges to see what the whole country would be like if "liberals" had their way. It would be a dictatorship.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN (Note that EYE ON BRITAIN has regular posts on the reality of socialized medicine). My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here. For readers in China or for times when blogger.com is playing up, there is a mirror of this site here.

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