* Charles denounced the radicalisation of young
Britons by Islamic fanatics
* He said they should show more respect to 'the
values we hold dear'
* Comments were made as he started a six-day
tour of the Middle East
* He will tell new Saudi king to show clemency
to Saudi blogger Raif Badawi
* Sentence of 1,000 lashes and ten years in
jail caused international outrage
* Prince last night arrived in Jordan, where he
will meet King Abdullah II
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Prince Charles wears traditional uniform in Saudi
Arabia last year he will now tell new
Saudi king Salman bin Abdulaziz
al Saudthat he should stop the 1,000 lashes handed
down as
punishment to blogger Raif Badawi
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Prince Charles risked
provoking a new political and religious storm yesterday when he said Muslims
living in the UK should follow British values.
In a staunch defence of
Britain's 'Christian standpoint,' he denounced the radicalisation of young
Britons by Islamic fanatics and said they should show more respect to 'the
values we hold dear'.
People who had 'come here,
were born here or go to school here' should 'abide by our values,' he said. His
comments were made as he started a six-day tour of the Middle East, seen as
another stage in assuming more of the Queen's international duties.
It is a clear response to
critics who say he should not meddle in sensitive political matters. The Prince
will also challenge Arab leaders head-on during the trip.
The Mail on Sunday can
disclose that he is to tell new Saudi king Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud to his
face that he should stop the 1,000 lashes handed down as punishment to Saudi
blogger Raif Badawi for comments which the regime claimed were critical of
Islam.
And he killed off
speculation that when he becomes King he will give up the Monarch's traditional
'defender of the faith' role in favour of a multicultural 'defender of faiths'
title.
His renewed 'defender of
the faith' pledge will be seen by some as a U-turn and a signal that the
Monarch's role as the head of the Church of England is far from over.
The Prince's intervention
comes hard on the heels of a new book which claims the Queen is worried that
her heir plans to be an 'activist king'. The Prince's comments on Islam and
Christianity are broadcast in an interview with BBC Radio 2's The Sunday Hour
this morning, suggesting he plans to be very active.
'The radicalisation of
people in Britain is a great worry, and the extent to which this is happening
is alarming, particularly in a country like ours where we hold values dear,' he
says. 'You would think the people who have come here, or are born here, and go
to school here, would abide by those values and outlooks.'
It was 'frightening' that
young British Muslims were radicalised by 'crazy stuff on the internet'.
Charles will reinforce his
tough stance on Islamic extremism by telling the new Saudi king to show
clemency to Saudi blogger Badawi.
His sentence of 1,000
lashes and ten years in jail over his website which encouraged Saudis to
criticise Islam and their rulers has caused international outrage.
Diplomatic sources say that
Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud may pay more attention to Charles, a fellow royal,
than a foreign political leader.
The Prince last night
touched down in Jordan, where he will meet Jordanian King Abdullah II, before
travelling on to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
Charles also intends to use
his Middle East tour to call for an end to attempts to drive Christians out of
the region. IS terrorists slaughtered thousands of Yazidis and Christians in
Northern Iraq, and Christians are also threatened in other Muslim countries.
If nothing was done, the
time could soon come when 'there are no Christians left in the Middle East…
they are intimidated to a degree you can't believe,' the Prince said.
He rammed home his point in
uncharacteristically plain terms: 'The tragedy is even greater because
Christians have been in the Middle East for 2,000 years, before Islam came in
the 8th Century.'
Furthermore, the Prince
went out of his way to quash claims that he does not want to be 'Defender of
the Faith' when he inherits the throne. He said his comment about being
'defender of faiths' to embrace all religions – made 20 years ago – had been
'misinterpreted'.
The Church of England's
role was not to defend Anglicism to the exclusion of other religions, he said,
but to protect the free practice of all faiths.
He would approach it from a
'Christian standpoint' and be both 'defender of the faith' and 'defender of
faiths.'
The former Bishop of
Oxford, Lord Harries, said the Prince's comments were a 'helpful
clarification'. He said some had seen the Prince's earlier remarks as watering
down the Church of England's historic role in an increasingly multi-faith country.
Lord Harries said the
Prince may have been advised he could not easily change the traditional title,
given to Monarchs since Henry VIII, because of the constitutional implications.
The Prince appeared to
accept he could be 'deeply immersed' in his own faith in the Church of England
while being 'protective of other faiths'.
Lord Harries said: 'He is
making the important point that they are not mutually exclusive.'
Prince Charles's trip to
the Middle East and his radio interview come after a new book Charles: Heart Of
A King by writer Catherine Mayer, claimed that the Queen is concerned her son
will be an 'activist' Monarch.
Charles's principle private
secretary William Nye was forced to write a public letter describing it
'ill-informed speculation'. He said Charles was 'inspired' by his mother's
example and understood the 'necessary and proper limitations' on the role of a
constitutional Monarch.
Ms Mayer's biography claims
Charles disagrees with the bans imposed in France and Belgium on Muslim women
covering their faces with burkas and niqabs, seeing the move as 'an infringement
of human rights' which criminalises women rather than challenging the custom.
Additional reporting:
Jonathan Petre
THE RAPIER WIT AND WISDOM
OF THE 'MEDDLING MONARCH'
Prince
Charles's reputation for 'meddling' stems from decades of making his views
clear on political matters – at home and abroad.
The Prince bombards
Ministers with his views on subjects ranging from the Human Rights Act (he is
opposed) to complementary health care (very much in favour).
His 'black spider memos',
written in a scrawling hand, are dreaded across Whitehall.
Until now, his most
incendiary interventions on the diplomatic stage have come in relation to
China: Charles is a friend and supporter of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual
leader who campaigns against Beijing's human rights abuses in his former
homeland.
In 2006 The Mail on Sunday
revealed that the Prince was unhappy with the 1997 handover of Hong Kong from
Britain to China, calling it 'The Great Chinese Takeaway.'
He also described Chinese
government officials in his personal journals as 'appalling old waxworks' and
attacked the 'ridiculous rigmarole' and 'awful Soviet-style display' of Chinese
soldiers during the handover ceremony.
Then, in 1999, Charles
caused alarm at the Foreign Office by boycotting a banquet at the Chinese
embassy in London hosted by the then president Jiang Zemin: as a gesture of
solidarity with the Dalai Lama, Charles chose instead to attend a private
dinner at his home with Camilla Parker Bowles and close friends.
And last year, the Prince
strongly criticised Vladimir Putin. Shortly after the Russian leader had seized
Crimea, Charles told a woman who lost relatives in the Nazi Holocaust: 'And now
Putin is doing just about the same as Hitler.'
Former Conservative MP
Louise Mensch greeted the news of Charles' visit to the Middle East by calling
his friendship with the Saudi royal family 'repellent' – due to the Gulf
state's human rights record – and calling on him to tackle the issue during his
official visit which started yesterday.
*
MY FEARS OVER INTIMIDATION
OF CHRISTIANS, BY HRH THE PRINCE OF WALES
There is a real worry
that there could come a time when there are no Christians left in the Middle
East because the numbers have gone so dramatically down.
With what has happened in
Mosul in Iraq and other centres, there are very few Christians left because
they were intimidated to a degree you can't believe.
Everything has been taken
from them. Many of them are so fearful now of ever going back.
It is a most agonising
situation, but we must remember that all around the world there is appalling
persecution going on, not only of Christians but of Muslims and of other faiths
and religions.
The radicalisation of
people in Britain is a great worry, and the extent to which this is happening
is alarming, particularly in a country like ours where we hold values dear.
You would think that the
people who have come here, or are born here, and who go to school here, would
abide by those values and outlooks.
But the frightening part is
that people can be so radicalised, either through direct contact with somebody,
or through the internet. There is an extraordinary amount of crazy stuff on the
internet and clearly some people get particularly affected by it and join with
others.
I can see some of this
radicalisation is a search for adventure and excitement at a particular age.
So what I have been trying
to do with the Prince's Trust and other groups is to find alternatives for
adolescents and people at a young age – constructive paths to channel their
enthusiasm, their energy, their sense of wanting to take risks.
I started something in 2007
called 'Mosaic', which was designed to try to help young people in Muslim
areas, particular in deprived areas in the UK, with mentoring to help build
self-esteem and self-confidence.
I have been asking them
recently to do more towards de-radicalisation, and there are some really
interesting examples of how people can be deradicalised once they become
radicalised because they find they are horrified by what it leads to.
Of course, how you prevent
radicalisation in the first place is the great challenge. You cannot just sweep
it under the carpet. But the most important thing is to remind people of the
distortions that are made of great religions, and the original ideas of the
founders of these religions.
Often you find their
message is so distorted by their putative followers. That's the tragedy and, of
course, traditional Islam does not permit this sort of thing.
Inevitably, I find it
heartbreaking that these sort of things should happen, particularly when I know
that there has never been more activity going on with interfaith dialogue and
endless efforts made to bring everyone together.
And the tragedy is even
greater because Christians have been in the Middle East for 2,000 years, before
Islam came in the 8th Century.
But I think the secret is
we have to work harder to build bridges, and we have to remember that Our Lord
taught us to love our neighbour.
When I called myself
Defender of Faith all those years ago I was trying to describe the inclusion of
other people's faiths and their freedom to worship in this country. At the same
time as being Defender of the Faith, you can also be protector of other faiths.
From that point of view, it
was very interesting that 20 years or more after I mentioned this frequently
misinterpreted phrase, the Queen, in her address to faith leaders around the
time of the Jubilee, said that as far as the role of the Church of England was
concerned, it is not to defend Anglicanism to the exclusion of other religions
but to protect the free practice of all faiths in this country. She was
conveying what I was trying to say.
The Prince's comments have been extracted from an exclusive
interview he gave to BBC Radio 2's The Sunday Hour, airing at 6am today.
