.... They denied Mrs Tazi’s version of events and claimed she had told them that Jesus was ‘a minor prophet’ and that the Bible was untrue.
No religious hatred there, of course.
.... How much longer will it take our politicians to realise that freedom of speech must be tolerated, and everyone living in the United Kingdom must accept that they may occasionally be insulted about their beliefs, however sincerely held, or indeed be offended, purposely or inadvertently, and that this is something which they must simply endure? [Archbishop Cranmer] Read more
'Freedom of speech' victory as Christian hoteliers are CLEARED of insulting Muslim woman as judge slams her evidence Christian hoteliers accused of insulting a Muslim guest for wearing the hijab and berating her for her beliefs were dramatically cleared this afternoon. Benjamin and Sharon Vogelenzang denied using threatening, abusive or insulting words which were religiously aggravated against white British Muslim convert Ericka Tazi, 60.
District Judge Richard Clancy, who heard the case in the absence of a jury, told the couple that religion and politics was the 'tinderbox which set the whole thing alight and it would appear because of strongly entrenched positions that is what has happened here'. [MailOnline] Read more
Hotelier Ben Vogelenzang cleared of insulting Muslim guest A district judge yesterday questioned the character of a Muslim convert as he dismissed the case against husband-and-wife Christian hoteliers accused of offending her new-found religion.
…. After a two-day trial, Richard Clancy, a district judge sitting at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court, threw out the allegations of religiously aggravated threatening behaviour, suggesting that Mrs Tazi’s account could not be relied upon and that she was not quite the religious person that she presented herself as in the witness box. [Times Online] Read more
Christianity has been demoted by the political class BY FAR the most significant thing about the case against Benjamin and Sharon Vogelenzang was that it reached a court of law in the first place. This evangelical Christian couple who run a hotel were accused of making derogatory remarks about the religion of one of their guests, Ericka Tazi, a Muslim convert, and thereby spreading religious hatred and contempt. [Daily Express] Read More
Common sense triumphs in Liverpool .... This is the kind of thing that brings the law, Islam, Christianity, and the idiot police who charged them all into disrepute. For once, the Christian Institute, which funded their defence, was right to portray Christians as the victims of a biased secular bureaucracy.
But it was not the Christian Institute which brought the law and the police into disrepute. The police did that themselves. [Guardian Cif] Read more
