Thanks and acknowledgments to Barnabus Fund for this news story.
A Christian councillor is facing possible exclusion from his party after walking out during a Muslim prayer at a council meeting.
Conservative councillor Malcolm Hey left the Portsmouth City Council chamber when Sheikh Fazle Abbas Datoo was asked to deliver an opening prayer. Mr Hey, ward councillor for Copnor, rejoined the meeting straight after the prayer.
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Gerald Veron-Jackson, leader of the Liberal Democrat-controlled council, has written to Conservative Party chairman Baroness Warsi calling for the councillor to be excluded from the party.
Mr Hey, who is also a founder member of the Grace Baptist Church said, "I'm a Christian, not a Muslim, and I do not believe we are praying to the same god."
The imam from the Al Mahdi mosque in Wickham had been invited to the meeting by the city's Lord Mayor, Paula Riches. It is customary for the authority to start its full council meetings with a prayer from a local Christian leader, but the mayor was keen to involve other religious groups as well in an effort towards greater inclusion.
While it might be acceptable for prayers from other faiths to be said at a council meeting, it is also perfectly acceptable for council members to absent themselves from these preliminaries for reasons of conscience. It is not acceptable for a Christian councillor to be excluded from his/her party because of this. No political party would exclude an atheist, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, or Jewish person who did not want to be present during Christian prayers.
Mr Hey, who is also a founder member of the Grace Baptist Church said, "I'm a Christian, not a Muslim, and I do not believe we are praying to the same god."
The imam from the Al Mahdi mosque in Wickham had been invited to the meeting by the city's Lord Mayor, Paula Riches. It is customary for the authority to start its full council meetings with a prayer from a local Christian leader, but the mayor was keen to involve other religious groups as well in an effort towards greater inclusion.
While it might be acceptable for prayers from other faiths to be said at a council meeting, it is also perfectly acceptable for council members to absent themselves from these preliminaries for reasons of conscience. It is not acceptable for a Christian councillor to be excluded from his/her party because of this. No political party would exclude an atheist, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, or Jewish person who did not want to be present during Christian prayers.
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