United Kingdom

Gaza’s impact on UK election indicates growing influence of Muslim vote 

(Charles Collins. The Catholic Herald).

One of the most notable features among the twists and turns of the UK’s 4 July General Election was the impact of ongoing events in the Middle East.

My local Member of Parliament, Jonathan Ashworth MP, lost a close vote to independent candidate Shockat Adam. Adam secured 14,739 votes, beating Ashworth’s 13,760 votes – a very slim margin, but enough to unseat a sitting MP.And Ashworth wasn’t a small fish. He had been in office since 2011, after he replaced Peter Soulsby, the Labour Party member who had served since 2005. South Leicester was considered a safe seat for him – in 2019, he won 67 per cent of the vote.

Rupnik

Rupnik art dispute more complicated than it appears, argues art historian

(Elise Ann Allen. The Catholic Herald).

As accusations of sexual abuse have mounted against Father Marko Rupnik, his art has increasingly come into question and under the microscope. This has included attentive observers noting a curiosity – the face of the artist himself, along with two of his closest friends and allies, appears in an obscure section of perhaps his most famous work.

Rupnik’s giant mosaic in the Vatican’s Redemptoris Mater Chapel, sometimes dubbed the “Sistine Chapel” of the late Pope John Paul II, was installed by the Rupnik-founded, Rome-based Centro Aletti in 1999, and blends eastern and western motifs in depicting the history of salvation.

Islam in British democracy and the dangers to our Jewish neighbours

(Gavin Ashenden. Catholic Herald).

For the first time, this 4 July a British General Election will be fought in part over Islamic ideology.

There are currently four constituencies where Muslims constitute over 50 per cent of the electorate in 2024. Tim Dieppe, Head of Public Policy at Christian Concern, has published figures showing the slow steady growth of Islamic influence in the British Electorate.

A recent report revealed that Islam is the largest minority religion in 129 of the 220 most marginal seats in this UK General Election.

Continue reading…