1 August 2024

The judge didn’t beat about the bush when he exposed the preacher to the forensic scrutiny of the law and declared, ‘I am sure that you will continue to preach your message of hate and division when or if you are given the opportunity to do so in the future.’

I hasten to say that the culprit was not a minister within the Church of Scotland. He was a preacher just like kirk ministers but the content of his gospel was not love but hate. And so the Muslim preacher, Anjem Choudary, was sentenced to a minimum of 28 years in prison. He will not be released before his 85th birthday!

He was found guilty of directing al-Muhajiroun, a banned terrorist organisation. As well as denying the Holocaust and making jokes about the 9/11 terror attacks, Choudary ‘ran the risk of causing or contributing to the deaths of very many people’.

He contradicts the character of a Christian minister as detailed by Titus. ‘He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered …. he must be hospitable, a lover of goodness, prudent, upright, devout and self-controlled.’ His entrenched and abhorrent views scandalise us. (Titus 1;7)

Most significantly, Mr. Justice Wall said, ‘You also helped to undermine the attempts of many good people to foster bonds between Muslims and people of other faiths and none, who then lived in the United Kingdom.’  Better the benign preaching of a compassionate kirk minister than this!

For peace and unity is the message of the One who through his own suffering reconciled the world to God. It is him and those called to preach his Word  who are celebrated in the Isaiah prophecy, ‘How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’ (Isaiah 52;7)

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