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Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrats’ new leader, has defied political convention with a frank admission that he is an atheist.
During a round of media broadcasts on the morning after his election to the post, he was asked by one interviewer: “Do you believe in God?”
“No,” Mr Clegg answered simply, during an appearance on BBC Radio 5 Live.
One positive note for the party is that Mr Clegg has already demonstrated a subtle sense of how to behave as a party leader . . . in “clarifying” himself hurridly:
He later issued a statement saying that, while he is “not an active believer”, his Spanish wife Miriam is a Roman Catholic and their two young sons will be brought up in the Catholic faith…
Actually, this isn’t about Roman Catholicism, really. Mr Clegg is certainly entitled to his personal faith, as well as any lack thereof. Instead, secondly, and even more vitally for his party, is how given his professed plans to see to it that the Lib Dems ”…bring in a new politics, of politicians who listen to people, not themselves…“, one can only but believe Mr Clegg’s succinct comments on this matter seem sure happily to further ingratiate his newly “listening” party with one of its newer core constituencies.
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So the Lib Dems have a bright, new leader. In fact, it is probably better that Mr Clegg — if he hopes to be prime minister — is an atheist rather than a Roman Catholic, given that it remains a serious question if a practicing Catholic can even be prime minister. In contrast, it would seem easier for an atheist than for a Roman Catholic to appoint Church of England bishops and archbishops.
Seriously, and why? For while Catholicism might make matters “theologically sticky” beyond the acceptable, atheism fortunately seems of little consequence to the head of the established Church. The BBC reports:
…Later the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, reacted to Mr Clegg’s declaration.
Dr Williams told Radio 5 Live presenter Simon Mayo: “It matters less to me than to know they are honest and reliable and that what beliefs they have they hold sincerely.
“This isn’t a country where Christianity is imposed by law. It’s a country with a nominally Christian majority. And that’s good…
Putting aside that discussing the obviously small issue of the existence of God doesn’t seem much of a priority to this Archbishop, far more troublesome is that even in decidedly earthly terms he — …an outstanding theologian and intellectual… — has apparently also forgotten that he presides over a still “established church“. And that that “establishment” remains Christian. Now, is that good? (Not whether, for our purposes here, that establishment is good or not, but rather that the Archbishop has apparently managed to have forgotten there is one.)
Reuters (yesterday, 13:55 GMT):
Kenyan police have arrested a British national on suspicion of possessing illegal arms, including hand grenades, which were seized in the east African country last week, a senior police source said on Monday…
…The head of a Kenyan Muslim human rights group said the man, Graham Andrew Adams, who converted to Islam as a teenager, told him he was arrested by anti-terrorism police in the port city of Mombasa last Tuesday before being taken to Nairobi.
“The police claim to be investigating terror charges,” said Al-Amin Kimathi who visited Adams, 31, in a Nairobi police station on Tuesday.
He said Adams was questioned about links to six Kenyan men arrested last Thursday with grenades in the capital’s Eastleigh estate, home to thousands of Kenyan Somalis and Somali refugees…
Mr Kimathi also said:
…Adams’ visa had expired while in custody.
And Reuters stated also:
A spokeswoman for the British High Commission in Nairobi said Adams had been arrested on immigration charges…
Similarly, The Telegraph (today, 3:06 GMT):
A British Muslim convert was being held in Kenya last night after being arrested during a raid by anti-terrorist police in the port city of Mombasa.
Graham Andrew Adams, 31, from Rochdale, who was said to have taken the name Ahmad Halid Adams when he converted to Islam, was transferred to a police station in Nairobi, the capital. He was later granted consular access.
Police sources said that Adams was arrested “in relation to a terrorism investigation” during an operation against suspects believed to be in possession of illegal arms…
…Al-Amin Kimathi, the chairman of Kenya’s Muslim Human Rights Forum, visited Adams yesterday.
He said that Adams became a Muslim at 18 and had been visiting Kenya for the last seven years. He wanted to open a restaurant in Mombasa. Mr Kimathi added that Adams’s visa had expired.
If all that’s just too much dizzying, newsgathering background information for you, well, there’s always the BBC’s rather more prosaic version of yesterday, 20:26 GMT:
Briton arrested by Kenyan police
Why?:
…The BBC’s Adam Mynott said the Briton is being held in relation with immigration offences…
Huh. Is that all? One wonders if the BBC always devotes so much web space to saying so little about a straightforward, foreign visa expiry detention?
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