This week, the Court of Appeal heard the case of Christian Legal Centre, regarding Nohad Halawi, who was dismissed from her job at Heathrow airport after her comments were incorrectly perceived by Muslim colleagues as being offensive to Islam. Judgment in the case has been reserved until a later date. Nohad Halawi, who worked for 13 years in World Duty Free (WDF) in Heathrow’s Terminal 3, spoke about Christianity and was perceived by Muslim colleagues to have given offence. The management, without any proper procedure, immediately took away her airside pass which meant she was prevented from working, despite an unblemished record. An Employment Tribunal ruled that Nohad had no protection under employment law as she was not technically employed, despite significant evidence to the contrary. Nohad contacted the Christian Legal Centre and Standing Council, Paul Diamond, represented her.
Legislation stating schools must hold a daily ‘broadly Christian’ assembly is at risk of being abolished. The National Governors' Association (NGA) has declared the law, as set out under the 1944 Education Act, to be ‘meaningless’, and has urged the government to put an end to its application in non-faith schools. ‘Few schools can or do meet the current legislative requirement for a daily act of collective worship, partly because there isn't space in most schools to gather students together, and often because staff are unable or unwilling to lead a collective worship session. There is also the added issue that worship implies belief in a particular faith - if the 'act of worship' is not in your faith then it is meaningless as an act of worship,’ a policy statement from the NGA reads.
UK boys 'lured to Syria to fight'
26 Jun 2014The father of a British teenager who travelled to Syria to join jihadists believes his son was radicalised by an imam at a UK mosque. Rahim Kalantar told the BBC his son Ali, 18, travelled to Syria with two friends from Coventry in March, and he believed he was now fighting with ISIS. He said he believed Ali - who was planning to study computer science at university - had been radicalised during classes at a mosque after evening prayer. ‘He [the imam] encouraged them and sent them down this road,’ he said. The iman has denied these allegations. Up to 500 Britons are thought to have travelled to the Middle East to fight in the onflict, officials say.
Thousands of mothers over the past seven years have had successive children removed by family courts in England, the BBC has learned. Court records for that period show 7,143 mothers were involved in repeat care cases - affecting 22,790 children. The research was carried out by the Universities of Brunel and Manchester and funded by the Nuffield Foundation. This is the first time such data has been produced. It backs up what judges have observed in their own courts for many years - that many mothers are stuck in a destructive cycle of pregnancies and care proceedings. The courts remove a young child or baby from a mother, owing to abuse or neglect, only to see the same mother return to court a year or two later, with a new baby, and unable to care for that one either. Most misuse drink or drugs - or both.
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor warns that UK law does not protect the rights of Christians, branding it ‘intolerant’. The former Catholic Archbishop has called for greater religious freedom in Britain, insisting that the law has done ‘too little’ to protect and promote the rights of Christians. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor has written an open letter to The Telegraph in response to its leader article which declared: ‘It is obvious that there is a growing conflict between religious freedom and legislation on equality, and that a new balance has to be struck’. The Telegraph itself was responding to a recent speech given by Baroness Hale, the UK's most senior female judge, who suggested that the law may be discriminatory against Christians. Speaking before the Law Society of Ireland in Dublin, Hale highlighted the case of Christian hoteliers Peter and Hazelmary Bull, who were found guilty of discrimination against a gay couple after instituting a policy that only married couples were allowed to stay in their double bedrooms.
Dr John Sentamu has condemned businesses that pay less than the living wage, calling on the government to put an end to the harsh reality for millions of UK workers: ‘Low wages equals living in poverty.’ The Archbishop is the chairman of the Living Wage Commission, an independent inquiry into the rise of low pay and working poverty across Britain. Its first report, published in February, found that 6.7 million of the 13 million people in poverty in the UK are in working households – the first time that the figure has reached over 50 per cent. The report also revealed that 21 per cent of the workforce, 5.24 million Brits, are paid below a Living Wage, while housing costs have tripled in 15 years and bills have increased by a staggering 88 per cent since 2009.
Fresh travel chaos emerged today as ministers admitted emergency passport extensions are not accepted in dozens of holiday hotspots. Nearly three quarters of countries will not accept passports given 12-month extensions under plans to alleviate the crisis. Popular travel destinations including Australia, China, India and Brazil are excluded from the list. The USA, Cyprus and Turkey – which were last year on the list of the seven most popular overseas holiday destinations for Britons – are also not allowing the passports. It’s another hugely embarrassing blow for Home Secretary Theresa May who last week announced that expat Britons who need to renew their passports would be given one-year extensions. The emergency move was supposed to ease the pressure of the recent surge in demand for the documents that has seen up to 55,000 people at risk of missing their holidays. But now the government has admitted only 50 countries have confirmed they will accept the extended passports.
'Revenge evictions' rising, says housing charity
19 Jun 2014New figures from the helpline of the housing and homelessness charity Shelter show a massive rise in calls from renters at risk of losing their homes. Shelter have called for better protection for renters as the research shows that these calls have more than doubled in the past two years. Campbell Robb, Shelter’s chief executive, said that the figures were ‘yet more evidence of the shocking reality that renters across the country are facing every day’. With recent research showing that more than 213,000 people have faced eviction in the past year after asking their private landlord for repairs, he says it is time to act. 'Calls to our helpline from renters are soaring and revenge evictions are becoming all too common. Private renting is close to crisis point: this can’t go on. The government has to protect England’s nine million renters from unfair evictions’, he said.