Tebbit’s fury after Bishop links IRA to Christianity
LORD TE B BIT has become embroiled in a furious row with the Lord Bishop of Leeds after he linked Christianity to the IRA’s terror campaign.
The former Tory Party chairman, who was injured in the 1984 Brighton bombing, has written to the Bishop to denounce him for his remarks. He told the Bishop, the Rt Rev Nick Baines, that the Republican group was ‘responsible for hundreds upon hundreds of murders’ – and the crippling of his wife.
The extraordinary dispute erupted following a recent Lords debate about Islam, which led to a clash between the Bishop and Ukip’s Lord Pearson after he objected to Pearson’s assertion that the Koran obliged Muslims to ‘impose sharia law’ on their host countries.
During a subsequent exchange of emails between the pair, seen by The Mail on Sunday, the Bishop wrote: ‘No one in their right mind would deny a link between IS and Islam – or between Christianity and the IRA/UDF or Marxism and the Red Brigades, for example. But the connections are more complex than can be dealt with in an oral question.’ However, Lord Tebbit, who was copied into the discussion by Lord Pearson last month, shot back: ‘ I was concerned that you believe that“no one in their right mind would deny a link between Christianity and the IRA”. That is simply not so since I would most certainly deny a link. ‘Indeed, I wonder what link you see between those responsible for hundreds upon hundreds of murders (among them five of my personal friends… as well as the crippling of my wife) and Christianity?’
The attack on the Grand Hotel during the 1984 Tory Party conference killed five people and severely injured 30, including Tebbit and his wife Margaret. Lady Tebbit has been paralysed since the bombing.
The Bishop had objected to Lord Pearson’s remark in the Lords that ‘several of our local authorities will soon be Muslim-majority and anger is already rising among our… working class at the Islamification of their communities’ and that Muslims were obliged to ‘impose sharia law’ on their host countries.
The Bishop accused Lord Pearson of ‘bearing false witness’ – or lying – leading to the exchange of emails. The Mail on Sunday revealed last month that Tebbit had described the new dean of his local cathedral in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, as a ‘sodomite’ because he was in a civil partnership with another clergyman.
Lord Tebbit said: ‘I find it difficult to accept a sodomite as a member of the clergy who will, for example, be called upon to conduct marriage services. I will struggle to attend if he is officiating.’
Last night the Lord Bishop of Leeds said: ‘I have responded to Lord Tebbit and our conversation will continue.’ And Lord Tebbit said: ‘We have agreed we are going to have a drink together to talk it over.’
I wonder what link you see between those responsible for hundreds upon hundreds of murders and Christianity LORD TEBBIT TO BISHOP OF LEEDS