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| Baroness Warsi's strike at 'secular fundamentalists' as she meets Pope |
| 2012-02-16 |
| Baroness Warsi has hit out at "secular fundamentalists" as she met the Pope and concluded an historic visit of British ministers to the Vatican. The Cabinet Office minister and chairman of the Conservative Party gave Benedict XVI a personal gift during a 20-minute private audience -- a gold-plated cube that opens up to reveal 99 tiny cubes, each inscribed with a reference to Allah. In keeping with the theme of interfaith dialogue, she also gave him a copy of the Koran which was translated by an East European Jew who converted to Islam and helped write Pakistan's constitution. "They were personal gifts from me," Baroness Warsi, the first female Muslim cabinet minister, told The Daily Telegraph at the Vatican on Wednesday. She also presented the pontiff with a letter from David Cameron, the Prime Minister, a message from the Queen and a copy of the King James Bible. Baroness Warsi expanded on a speech she gave in Rome on Tuesday, and an article she wrote for The Daily Telegraph, that British society was under threat from a rising tide of "militant secularisation" and that Europe needs to be "more confident in its Christianity". Speaking after her meeting with the Pope, she said: "Secular fundamentalists are saying that people of faith shouldn't have a voice in the public sphere. I'm saying faith should be one of many voices, it should be part of the debate." According to a study carried out for Richard Dawkins's aggressive atheist think tank, most people in Britain who identify themselves as Christian are "overwhelmingly secular in their attitudes on issues ranging from gay rights to religion in public life". Almost three-quarters of people interviewed agreed that religion should not influence public policy, while only 12 per cent thought it should. |
| Posted by:lotp |
| #2 She's a thicko. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2012-02-16 12:29 |
| #1 In a just world (and in keeping with the theme of interfaith dialogue), His Holiness would have presented the good Baroness with a copy of Madden's "The Real History of the Crusades". No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!! |
| Posted by: GORT 2012-02-16 08:32 |