Christians warned over terror strategy

CHRISTIANS COULD be targeted by the Government’s new counter-extremism strategy, a Bishop will warn.

The Rt Rev Mark Davies will say Catholics professing their faith in Jesus could be caught up in measures to tackle non-violent extremism.

The Bishop of Shrewsbury will suggest Theresa May’s efforts to counter the ideology that underpins terrorist attacks could be misused to ensnare peaceful Christians who disagree with secularist ideologies.

He will express his concerns in a homily to more than 1,000 English pilgrims gathered at the Marian shrine of Lourdes in France today.

Bishop Davies will say: “Britons now regard the claims of Christianity and even the person of Jesus Christ as representing extremism.

“It is even possible that the very faith in Christ, on which our nation was built, might become a focus of the Government’s counter-extremism agenda.”

The Prime Minister announced a review of the Government’s counter-terror strategy as well as a new commission for countering extremism in the Queen’s Speech.

But Bishop Davies will highlight confusion over the definition of extremism, citing findings from a ComRes poll which found that nearly a third of Britons think Jesus was an extremist.

He will tell pilgrims from the Dioceses of Shrewsbury and Salford that Christians are extreme only in their “following of Christ and in all that contributes to the good of society, recognising how we are all called to the extremes of charity, of virtue, of grace, of unswerving adherence to goodness and truth, to the high goal of holiness in which lies our ultimate happiness”.