As with many grand muftis before him, the Sheikh based his proclamation on the famous tradition, or hadith, wherein the prophet of Islam declared on his deathbed that "There are not to be two religions in the [Arabian] Peninsula," which has always been interpreted to mean that only Islam can be practiced in the region.

While the facts of this account speak for themselves, consider further:

For weeks now the media has been in a frenzy about whether or not the Prime Minister rode a particular horse. Frankly the idea that Cameron should seriously check the provenance of every gee-gee he goes for a ride on is so daft as to be laughable.

There are vastly more important matters to which we should be drawing attention and the abject surrender of our Christian heritage is one, as is the growing persecution of anyone who happens to believe the gospel is true.

Such violence in response to purported religious insults is not simply spontaneous. It is also stoked and channeled by governments for political purposes. And the objects and victims of accusations of religious insults are not usually Westerners, but minorities and dissidents in the Muslim world.

The situation of Homs at the moment is a horrifying one. Violence has escalated... We witnessed a lot of bombardments, killings, shootings, kidnappings.

As well as the danger of being caught in the crossfire, the lack of resources is putting the survival of Homs' residents under serious threat. There is no electricity, and people are running out of clean water, food and medicines.