Old soldiers up in arms as remembrance hymn banned
Onward, Christian Soldiers dropped from church’s service to mark war dead over fear of causing offence
IT IS a song that has been sung for more than 100 years in memory of British war dead. But Onward, Christian Soldiers has been dropped from one church’s Remembrance Sunday service – over concerns that it will offend non-christians.
Royal British Legion club members are in revolt over the decision to scrap the hymn at the service in St Peter’s Cofe Church in Oadby, Leicester.
The Oadby Royal British Legion branch – which is a separate body from the club – has met with the Rev Steve Bailey, the vicar, and both agreed not to sing the song this year.
But Ian Thorpe, 61, vice-chairman of the Oadby legion club, which is across the road from the church, said: “The new vicar is not happy with Onward, Christian Soldiers being sung.
“It’s been done nearly every year in recent memory but he said they’re not doing it because not everyone at the service will be Christians – it’s not the ‘soldiers’ bit, it’s the ‘Christian’ bit.”
He said Pete Green, the club’s chairman, was planning to boycott the service and instead just lay a wreath. Others in the congregation are also considering staying outside the church where they will sing the hymn anyway.
It is not the first time the hymn has been the subject of controversy at the church. In 2012 another vicar decided the hymn should not be sung at the service. Mr Thorpe said: “There were lots of complaints and it was back the next year.” A worker at the church, who did not want to be named, said: “The hymn is completely inappropriate. It is about spiritual warfare and not earthly warfare and we wanted something that would reflect Oadby’s multicultural population and people of other faiths. We are quite upset by this because everybody else seems quite happy with it and we have always had a good relationship with the Royal British Legion.”
Rev Bailey, in a statement issued by the Diocese of Leicester, said: “We agreed the change in hymn with the Oadby Royal British Legion who run this major civic event because members of the community from a wide range of cultural backgrounds attend this parade, service and laying of wreaths at the war memorial.
“It is because the legion’s committee recognised that people from different faiths served in the Armed Forces that we will be singing All People That On Earth Do Dwell instead of Onwards, Christian Soldiers. We will also sing Guide Me Oh Thou Great Redeemer and Oh God Our Help In Ages Past.
“This year for the first time Oadby Multicultural Group will be laying a wreath at the war memorial as well as the one I will lay on behalf of the parish, and we do want people of all faiths who are paying respect to those from their own faiths and cultures who served and gave their lives to feel welcome in the service.
“I understand that the British Royal Legion branch is now discussing their social club members’ complaints with the individuals who raised them. I am happy to discuss the matter with them as well as to provide reassurance that the remembrance service in the church remains a Christian service and one in which everyone can feel welcome.”
‘This year for the first time Oadby Multicultural Group will be laying a wreath at the war memorial’
Ummariyat Mirza was internet shopping and had found what he wanted. “I have a knife I want u to buy me,” he messaged his wife. Later, he sent her the details. She was exasperated.
“Its so much money Ummar, is it really necessary to spend that much? We’ve got bills to pay, man, baby’s thing to get… Can u not use any dishum [knife],” she messaged him.
“This isnt a fantasy, its real… its real as it gets,” he replied.
So she deployed the classic, sensible wife argument: he wouldn’t get much use out of the damn thing anyway.
“Its just going to sit at home Ummar, ur not gonna carry it around with u all the time… £300 is not a joke Ummar. Is there not a cheaper one u could buy? They all do the same friggin thing Ummar.”
The “thing” was not, alas, chopping potatoes. It was cold-blooded murder. Mr Mirza and his wife, Madihah Taheer, have now both been convicted of plotting a terrorist attack. In the end, she had gone for a £121 blade (very economical) and a £275 dummy to practise on.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way: the financial quarrels, the bickering over when to go to Syria (not before she had had laser eye surgery in the West, she insisted, in case her glasses broke). It was a whirlwind teenage romance, founded on passionate promises of murder and revenge. He was 16 when it started, she 17. She had a list of people she wanted him to kill. Stabbing them was his “dream”, he messaged her, and she was his “perfect partner and soulja [soldier] and soulmate”.
On her Facebook page, a cover photo depicted how this dream might look. It was an orientalist painting of two Muslim soldiers racing their horses away from a city of minarets, the first holding a breathless maiden in his arms. The work is called “Abduction” (and it’s by Luigi Crosio, an Italian Catholic).
But how does a 17-year-old in Birmingham convince herself that her domestic squabbling over murder weapons on Whatsapp is part of a romantic, epic struggle? Spend an afternoon reading the propaganda of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) and you start to have an inkling.
“You may be in the lion’s den, but know that the real lion is the [ jihadi] who overcomes all mortal fears,” one issue of Dabiq, Isil’s magazine, advises. “My Muslim sister, indeed you are a [ jihadi],” says another, “the weapon of the women is good behavior and knowledge.” Another article assures women: “You are in jihad when you await the return of your husband patiently.”
What Isil does for its followers is turn their wretched, boring lives into a cosmic fight between good and evil, with a dose of Hollywood drama. Its recruiting success shows that we should never underestimate people’s ability to convince themselves that they are heroes in an epic story, when they are, in fact, a pair of moaning teenagers.
“This isnt a fantasy, its real,” Mirza had insisted. Thankfully for us, life has just given him and his wife a reality check.
I’ve never quite understood why, but in the world of young London professionals, it’s considered fitting to look guilty when stating that one pays for the services of a cleaner or a nanny. Freely hiring labour is an inherently dirty business, it’s believed, especially when it comes to cleaning.
It turns out, though, that this moral code has exceptions. At a recent event held at University College London by Penguin Books, discussion turned to the evils of “exploiting” people by paying them to do household tasks.
The speaker, the Marxist former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, reminisced about a better time, when his grandmother used to knit jumpers and make bread. Kate Raworth, the self-styled “renegade economist” interviewing him, pointed out that her ability to buy jumpers and bread in shops was rather an advantage of capitalism for feminists. An agonised debate followed and, eventually, Ms Raworth revealed her solution: “I have a male au pair.”
In response to which the audience burst into spontaneous applause.
The tortuous logic, unless I’m mistaken, must run thus: working as a minder for another’s children is exploitative work usually done by women. Men are members of a privileged group. Therefore, exploiting a man is a courageous strike against the patriarchy, a revolutionary inversion of the master and the slave.
The net result of which is that the children are looked after and someone gets paid. Vive la révolution!
While sitting on a panel at the Institute for Government this week, EU official Stefaan De Rynck was forced to comment on whether the dreadful Article 50 process might provide some valuable lessons for the future operation of the EU’S treaties. De Rynck, who works as an adviser to the EU’S chief Brexit negotiator, responded that since Brexit is a “one-off ”, “there are no lessons to be learned”. The EU, of course, does not believe this, or it wouldn’t be so keen to punish Britain for leaving. They, and we, know that Eurosceptics in other countries are watching closely.
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