In a speech outside 10 Downing Street, British Prime Minsiter Rishi Sunak credited the Church with accepting those of all faiths.
“You can be a practicing Hindu and a proud Briton, as I am. Or a devout Muslim and a patriotic citizen, as so many are. Or a committed Jewish person and the heart of your local community, all underpinned by the tolerance of our established Christian church. We are a country where we love our neighbours. We are building Britain together, ” Rishi Sunak said, outside 10 Downing Street in his lectern speech on Friday evening.
The comments, crediting the Church in England for enabling people of all faiths to feel embraced by Britain, were praised by the Executive Director of Christians in Politics, Andy Flanagan.
“I agree with what Rishi Sunak said about the Church being the basis for our plural society. You know, the very idea that the word secular comes from the idea of the secular, going right back to Constantine until the idea of the Church providing a plural public space—a place where everybody could play, where nobody was forced to believe something, where everybody had the freedom to believe what they wanted to believe.
“That’s the gift of the Church to the world. It’s sometimes not realised by people. That’s where we get the word secular from. It’s a gift of the church to the world.
“So I absolutely agree with what Rishi said about that.”
The British Prime Minister stressed that the enduring values of the UK are about embracing migrants of all faiths and ethnicities and urged protesters to ensure peaceful demonstrations are not hijacked by extremist forces.
“Immigrants who have come here have integrated and contributed. They have helped write the latest chapter in our island story. They have done this without being required to give up their identity,” said Sunak.
“But I fear that our great achievement in building the world’s most successful multi-ethnic, multi-faith democracy is being deliberately undermined. There are forces here at home trying to tear us apart,” he added.
He was speaking soon after what he characterised as the “beyond alarming” win in a by-election on Thursday of a controversial politician, George Galloway, in Greater Manchester following a campaign dominated by the divisions of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
He said on too many occasions recently, the streets of Britain had been hijacked by small groups who are hostile to British values and have no respect for its democratic traditions.
“Islamist extremists and the far right feed off and embolden each other. They are equally desperate to pretend that their violence is somehow justified when actually these groups are two sides of the same extremist coin… both loathe the pluralist, modern country we are,” he said.
The British Prime Minister stressed that both these groups of extremists were spreading the poison of extremism with the aim of draining Britain’s confidence.
“No country is perfect, but I am enormously proud of the good that our country has done. I stand here as our country’s first non-white Prime Minister, leading the most diverse government in our country’s history to tell people of all races, all faiths and all backgrounds it is not the colour of your skin, the God you believe in or where you were born, that will determine your success but just your own hard work and endeavour,” the Prime Minister said.
Sunak also said threats of violence and intimidation are alien to the British way of doing things and must be resisted at all times.
(Agencies; Picture Courtesy: AFP)
