A few days ago over at the Islamist Watch Blog David J. Rusin penned a post titled Christians Warned Not to Evangelize British Muslims and I found it interesting because last time I checked, Britian was a relatively free country.
However, according to this post and linked items in Rusin's post, Britian has basically left it's Christian roots and now Christians are being told not to evangelize especially in "no go areas" which are for non-Muslims. In other words, if you aren't a Muslim, then you are not allowed to be in that specific area and share your faith.
And this is being enforced -
Last February a pair of Baptist missionaries distributing leaflets in Birmingham, England, encountered an apparent no-go area firsthand — with police serving as its enforcers:
Two Christian preachers were stopped from handing out Bible extracts by police because they were in a Muslim area, it was claimed yesterday.
They say they were told by a Muslim police community support officer that they could not preach there and that attempting to convert Muslims to Christianity was a hate crime.
The community officer is also said to have told the two men: "You have been warned. If you come back here and get beat up, well, you have been warned."
The preachers — Americans who are longtime residents of the UK — contend that such treatment violated their rights of religious expression: "This is a free country and to suggest we were guilty of a hate crime for spreading God's word is outrageous."
And Rusin ends his post with some very poignant comments. Read this...
Two points: First, evangelization is a central element of free societies, in which people can believe as they desire, invite neighbors to their faith, and decline the overtures of others. Second, if Lowe truly holds that promoting his religion "contributes nothing to our communities," then a bishopric might not be the ideal position for him.
Does the no-proselytizing policy result from concern for the physical safety of Christian preachers and potential apostates from Islam? Or is it just another example of centuries-old traditions being discarded under the rubric of multiculturalism?
Unfortunately, neither bodes well for the future of freedom — religious or otherwise.
