Dr Taj Hargey, the Imam of the Oxford Islamic Congregation: "Christianity is under siege in this country. Britain's national religion has never been so marginalised and derided by the public institutions that should be defending it."
Richard Dawkins, atheist and author of The God Delusion, said: “There are no Christians, as far as I know, blowing up buildings. I am not aware of any Christian suicide bombers. I am not aware of any major Christian denomination that believes the penalty for apostasy is death. I have mixed feelings about the decline of Christianity, in so far as Christianity might be a bulwark against something worse.”
“What is happening in Western Europe is not persecution but a marginalising of faith which seeks to portray it as a matter of personal conscience only. Some examples of this originate from a mistaken but well-meant political correctness that is anxious not to upset minority faiths by seeming to ‘privilege’ Christianity. Hence the regular ‘pantomime’ every Christmas where some local Council or another absurdly gives Christmas another name....
Mgr Michel Dubost, évêque d’Évry: “I am pleased to see how eagerly the government, politicians, the press and public opinion revolt when a mosque or a synagogue is attacked. I join those who denounce such crimes. But this general eagerness makes the total silence about the churches quite stunning... Personally, I cannot get used to these desecrations... If we have to scream, we will scream. After all, we too are citizens.”
“The trouble with a lot of Government initiatives about faith is that they assume it is a problem, it’s an eccentricity, it’s practised by oddities, foreigners and minorities."
The Evangelical Alliance’s Head of Public Affairs Don Horrocks told Third Sector magazine that ministerial pledges of support for religious charities had so far come to nothing. In contrast to public pronouncements, Don Horrocks said that new measures such as the Equality Bill displayed prejudice towards Christian groups.