From EveningNews24, with thanks to Susan:
Rev Alan Clifford, pastor of the Norwich Reformed Church, waded into the controversy surrounding anti-Muslim remarks made by the British National Party in an undercover BBC documentary….
While trying to distance himself from the BNP, who he describes as “abhorrent”, the Norwich evangelical pastor echoed its leader’s views on Islam in a letter to the Evening News.
He stated: “However unpalatable or non-PC the truth is to many people today, we need to know the facts about Islam.
“While the racism of the BNP is abhorrent, Nick Griffin’s recent Newsnight remarks regarding Islam are correct, when he said it was “a monster in our midst”.
“The only antidote to this evil religion is the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Dr Clifford today told the Evening News he stood by his decision to align his own views about the spread of Islam with those of the BNP.
“I’m quite clear to disassociate myself from the racism of the BNP. However, not every group wrong about one thing is wrong about everything,” he said.
“The views about Islam made by Nick Griffin gained widespread publicity and I happen to believe what he said in this case was correct.
“Anyone who knows anything about the history of Islam knows it has devastated large parts of the world through the force of violence and the power of the sword.”
Dr Clifford said Muslim leaders in Britain needed to do more to disassociate themselves from terrorism and parts of the Koran that could be used to incite violence.
“The more moderate followers of Islam need to be challenged that if they do settle in the West they need to do more to discard elements of the Koran that espouse violence. Terrorists are able to use parts of the Koran to justify their violence,” he said.
Those who think that can not be happening or is not happening should read Qur’an 9:5, 9:29, 8:12, 8:39, 5:51, 48:39, 2:191, 98:6, etc. etc. etc., and the statements of Osama bin Laden and England’s own Omar Bakri and Abu Hamza.
Of course, the PC police are out for Dr. Clifford:
Anne Matin, director of Norwich and Norfolk Racial Equality Council, condemned Dr Clifford’s remarks.
She said: “Is he supposed to be a Christian? What he is saying is incitement to racial hatred and it will have a significant effect on ethnic minorities because they are more likely to be followers of Islam.”
Now wait a minute. Clifford is inciting racial hatred by pointing out that moderate Muslims need to do more to renounce terrorism, and that terrorists use the Qur’an to justify their actions. But what about that is false? And what did Anne Matin have to say to Omar Bakri and Abu Hamza? Have they not practiced incitement to hatred? Or is that something that can only be perpetrated by non-Muslims?
Eamonn Burgess, a former city councillor and member of the Anti Nazi League (ANL), who have opposed campaigning by the BNP in Norfolk, said the pastor was misguided….
“Like Islam, the organised spread of the Christian faith was also carried out by brute force. Let the religion who has not sinned cast the first stone.”
That is demonstrably false, but I suspect that would make little difference to Eamonn Burgess.