A SAD DAY FOR CHRISTIANITY

The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has described the decision not to allow a female hospital worker to wear a tiny cross at her neck as “bureaucratic silliness” but even more - it shows just how loony life in Britain has become.

Muslims may wear the niqab, Sikhs may wear the kirpan (a short bladed traditional dagger) but a Christian has been ordered by an employment tribunal not to wear the symbol of her faith.

I hold nothing whatsoever against religious minorities in the United Kingdom - indeed the contrary - but as a Christian citizen, I`m appalled. This decision is nothing less than madness, yet no one dares speak up for fear of being classified as either a religious bigot or a racist. Or both.

Management at the hospital concerned have suggested a compromise where the woman, 54 year old Mrs Shirley Chaplin would be allowed to pin her tiny cross to her uniform, or to wear it on a lanyard. What utter rubbish is that!

The Christian Legal Centre plans an appeal.

Praise the Lord!

Image: www.worldreligions.co.uk

CHOKE ON YOUR SHARK-FIN SOUP!

Every year millions of sharks die a slow death because of what is known as finning: the inhumane practice of slicing off the fins and throwing the living body back into the sea.

Finned sharks either starve to death, or are eaten alive by other predators, but since they need constant movement to enable their gills to extract oxygen, a majority simply drown.

Shark fins are being "harvested" in ever greater numbers to feed the Asian demand for shark fin soup. The Chinese are the biggest customers for this so-called delicacy and like the Japanese intransigence over whaling, they show scant concern for decimating the world shark population.

Not only is finning barbaric, but the indiscriminate slaughter of sharks is unsustainable. Since the 1970s the population of several shark species has dropped by 95%.

Due to the clandestine nature of finning, it is difficult to record the numbers of sharks, and the species caught. Estimates are based on declared imports to shark fin markets notably in China, but also Singapore, Korea and Malaysia - all guilty of importing shark fin for restaurant tables.

Several organisations campaign to stop finning. A website seeking a worldwide ban on the practice, is STOPSHARKFINNING, which aims to see that all sharks caught are brought ashore intact.

The issue with sharks being finned at sea is that it allows crews to kill large numbers because they only have to store the fins on board (drying them on deck or freezing them). If forced to land the sharks, they cannot kill so many in one voyage. And the meat can be sold.

www.stopsharkfinning.net

Images: www.copix.co.uk

For graphic images of shark finning check out:

http://seapics.com/feature-subject/conservation-issues/shark-finning-shark-fishing-pictures-001.html

BURQINI MAKES WAVES IN PARIS POOL

The Oz `burqini` creating controversy in Paris is only the latest ridiculous idea about how Muslim women should dress.

In the first century of Islam, Muslims were relaxed about what women wore.

The hijab is mentioned in the Qur`an only in the concept of a barrier - like a Victorian screen- to shield wives from male visitors to the house. Khadija, the wealthy, independent wife of the Prophet, did not herself veil.

Unfortunately over the years, a pseudo-religious concept of the burqa arose in some Muslim countries, requiring women cover themselves from view.

But in western societies, the burqa and the downright anti-social niqab, is merely power play by women of whom many are Muslim converts. That they adopt this attire does no favours to women FORCED to wear purdah by dominant men, emphatically in the Pathan tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. And also in Saudi Arabia.

I agree that this `Carole` (now petulantly threatening to leave France) should not be allowed to wear the `burqini` in a public pool. And comments by many Muslims indicate their agreement.

The Lebanese-Australian who designed the `burqini` for Sydney`s beaches claims it fosters integration, but it does the opposite because the wearer stands out as being Muslim.

Better to build a `women only` swimming pool, or to allocate a beach (not only for Muslims, but for all modest women) like those which exist in Alexandria and on the Caspian Sea in Iran.

Women only bathing beaches would also be a good idea in the GCC states where Arab women swim in their black abayas which float around them like an oil slick.

c.Christine Osborne.

Image: Pathan women on a carriage outing in N.W.Pakistan.

Source: www.copix.co.uk

BOYCOTT RESTAURANTS

SERVING ENDANGERED SPECIES OF FISH

The stocks of several species of fish are seriously endangered due to overfishing caused by demand from unscrupulous restaurants.

While these are located mainly in Asia, notably in China and Japan, several well known London restaurants are serving both bluefin tuna and shark fin soup.

Sharks and bluefin tuna are on the danger list, but while the fishing of both species is condemned by conservationists, neither NOBU`S celebrity haunt in Mayfair, nor the Dorchester Hotel`s CHINA TANG - run by Hong Kong tycoon Sir David Tang - will take them off their menus.

I call for a BOYCOTT of both these restaurants and any others you may come across when dining out in London. Or elsewhere.

About twenty species of shark are said to be under threat. If you see fishermen performing the cruel practice of `finning and tailing` and often throwing the sharks back into the sea to bleed to death, advise the Humane Society International and/or Endangered Species International.

Countries where this practise is rife include: Somalia, Kenya, Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan, Phillipines, the Eastern Arab Gulf states and Yemen.

c.Christine Osborne

Image: Finning a shark, Monbasa, Kenya

Source: Grazyna Bonati www.copix.co.uk