Just when you think that some of the Church of England vicars can sink no further into smugness and stupidity there’s this:
“A Birmingham vicar was today accused of “political correctness gone mad” after calling for the historic Saracen’s Head pub to be renamed because it offends Muslims. Kings Norton’s rector, Canon Rob Morris, said the name, which harks back to the Crusades, was “offensive”, although he had heard no complaints.”
Morris’ stance, of course, is so wrong on so many levels, that it’s impossible to know where to begin.
It’s worth noting, however, that one of those seemingly in agreement with this presumptious parson was none other than the chairman of the Birmingham Central Mosque. Judging by this report, published a day or two after Saracengate, he might have been better employed paying attention to matters rather closer to his own patch:
“A long-running feud between rival factions at a Birmingham mosque is believed to be behind two murders, including the fatal shooting of a 35-year-old man at a gym last week. Azmat Yaqub was repeatedly shot in the head and chest as he worked out at the Chic Physique Health and Fitness Gymnasium in Birmingham on Thursday night. The hit is being linked to a second attack in which Mr Yaqub was injured and his friend, Shaham Ali, 30, was killed in a drive-by shooting in Birmingham in March last year…The first, unsuccessful attempt to murder Mr Yaqub was blamed on a dispute between rival groups at the Birmingham Central Mosque, Europe’s largest Islamic centre which can hold 5,000 worshippers. The row centred on an affair between the mosque secretary and a wife of the centre’s imam, or preacher.”