In his speech this afternoon David Blunkett explicitly equated
evangelicals with Islamic terrorists. He talked about “those who would
take our lives because they reject our faith” and went on “…[the new law] applies equally from far right evangelical Christians, to extremists in the Islamic faith.” [See page 2 for fuller transcript.]

The proposal appears to be a new censorship law which allows politicians to decide what is an acceptable religious belief and what isn’t.

Colin Hart, Director of The Christian Institute, said today:

“David Blunkett today has showed the danger of giving politicians the
power to censor religious belief. The confidence of evangelicals in this
new law has been shattered by the Home Secretary’s intemperate comments.”

“He appears to want to introduce this law to clamp down on evangelicals. A new incitement offence could put church leaders in jail and affect Christian schools, youth work or street preaching.”

“Many evangelicals have gone down in history as great Britons –
Wilberforce, Shaftsbury and Josephine Butler, to name a few. To equate
evangelicals with terrorists is an outrage. I call on the Home Secretary
to retract his implied assertion that evangelicals in the UK are calling
for the murder of non-Christians.”

For further information contact Simon Calvert on 0191 281 5664

Note for editors

* Evangelicals are Christians whose highest authority is the Bible and who hold to the historic Christian creeds.
* Extract from speech given by David Blunkett on 7 July 2004:
“We need to be able to take on those extremists and say, I’m afraid in our society, pluralism and openness, the ability to accept differences without being subsumed, is crucial to our survival, it’s what distinguishes all of us, from every faith, from those who would take our lives because they reject our faith, and it applies equally from far right evangelical
Christians, to extremists in the Islamic faith.”