http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1817498,00.html
The Sunday TimesOctober 09, 2005
Postbag of hate for a black archbishop
The Church of Englands new No 2 has endured racial abuse, he tells Christopher Morgan and Jasper Gerard
THE new Archbishop of York, Ugandan-born John Sentamu, has been receiving racist hate mail since his appointment. He reveals today that since he was chosen as the Church of Englands second in command in June he has received letters daubed with swastikas and containing excrement.
I have been victim of all sorts of things, he said in an interview at Lambeth Palace. I have had a lot of terrible racist hate mail even since my appointment as archbishop.
NI_MPU('middle');Sentamu admitted he sometimes stared at people and wondered if it was they who were writing these terrible, terrible letters. Then he smiled and added: But I wake up every morning and I am breathing and I say, Its a good day; its going to be okay.
He also revealed he had previously been the victim of racist threats while sitting on the inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence, the black teenager. He was sent a photograph of the murdered boy. Under it were the words, You are next, said Sentamu. It was written in red ink.
The inquiry investigated the failure of the institutionally racist police to bring Lawrences murderers to justice. Sentamu passed the photograph and some of the more lurid letters to the police, but nobody is thought to have been charged.
In 2002 such virulent threats turned to violence when he was attacked on his way home from a celebration at St Pauls Cathedral to mark the Queens golden jubilee.
A young man spat on me and said ****** go back, Sentamu recalled. He then pushed me down an escalator. I had to go to hospital. I had just finished singing hymns and he realised where I had come from.
In the first set-piece interview since he was confirmed as archbishop last week, Sentamu displayed a willingness to speak openly and challenge conventional views. He accused the British of godlessness, defended Muslim schools and did not shy away from diving into the politics of Iraq.
Despite his experiences with hate mail Sentamu, a former judge who fled to Britain 25 years ago to escape persecution from Idi Amin, then Ugandas dictator, believes British society is essentially tolerant. The United Kingdom compared to the rest of Europe is trying desperately hard to be a loving, inclusive society, he said. I feel at home.
The English person in the main has a sense of what it is to be a citizen, to belong and to be welcoming to strangers. But he warned that growing disregard for church and God risked alienating people of other faiths, especially Muslims.
For the first time in human history Europe has suggested that it is possible to live without the concept of God, he said. Muslims find that hard to understand. Islam may be posing questions we need to hear, and sometimes it is us who need to understand those asking the questions.
Despite his importance in the Church of England, the archbishop declared he is happy for Muslims to attend Anglican schools. More controversially he said it was acceptable for pupils to be educated in Muslim schools even where the intake is predominantly Christian.
His remarks are likely to infuriate Christians and secularists alike. You may find today that a Muslim school is predominantly Muslim, said Sentamu. Who knows, the Muslims may move out and before you know where you are more Christians have come into it. The question is: should that school be taken over by Christians? If it continues to deliver good all-round education why should someone want to say hand it over? It is not a question of who is in charge but what it delivers. When asked if he is troubled that Muslim schools might not treat girls equally, he replied: Muslim schools I know of are very well run. They invite me to talk about God because under the national curriculum religious education classes must include the teaching of comparative religion. So you have fantastic dialogue. In the long run I want to say to people, Could we be slightly more relaxed?
The Sunday TimesOctober 09, 2005
Postbag of hate for a black archbishop
The Church of Englands new No 2 has endured racial abuse, he tells Christopher Morgan and Jasper Gerard
I have been victim of all sorts of things, he said in an interview at Lambeth Palace. I have had a lot of terrible racist hate mail even since my appointment as archbishop.
NI_MPU('middle');Sentamu admitted he sometimes stared at people and wondered if it was they who were writing these terrible, terrible letters. Then he smiled and added: But I wake up every morning and I am breathing and I say, Its a good day; its going to be okay.
He also revealed he had previously been the victim of racist threats while sitting on the inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence, the black teenager. He was sent a photograph of the murdered boy. Under it were the words, You are next, said Sentamu. It was written in red ink.
The inquiry investigated the failure of the institutionally racist police to bring Lawrences murderers to justice. Sentamu passed the photograph and some of the more lurid letters to the police, but nobody is thought to have been charged.
In 2002 such virulent threats turned to violence when he was attacked on his way home from a celebration at St Pauls Cathedral to mark the Queens golden jubilee.
A young man spat on me and said ****** go back, Sentamu recalled. He then pushed me down an escalator. I had to go to hospital. I had just finished singing hymns and he realised where I had come from.
In the first set-piece interview since he was confirmed as archbishop last week, Sentamu displayed a willingness to speak openly and challenge conventional views. He accused the British of godlessness, defended Muslim schools and did not shy away from diving into the politics of Iraq.
Despite his experiences with hate mail Sentamu, a former judge who fled to Britain 25 years ago to escape persecution from Idi Amin, then Ugandas dictator, believes British society is essentially tolerant. The United Kingdom compared to the rest of Europe is trying desperately hard to be a loving, inclusive society, he said. I feel at home.
The English person in the main has a sense of what it is to be a citizen, to belong and to be welcoming to strangers. But he warned that growing disregard for church and God risked alienating people of other faiths, especially Muslims.
For the first time in human history Europe has suggested that it is possible to live without the concept of God, he said. Muslims find that hard to understand. Islam may be posing questions we need to hear, and sometimes it is us who need to understand those asking the questions.
Despite his importance in the Church of England, the archbishop declared he is happy for Muslims to attend Anglican schools. More controversially he said it was acceptable for pupils to be educated in Muslim schools even where the intake is predominantly Christian.
His remarks are likely to infuriate Christians and secularists alike. You may find today that a Muslim school is predominantly Muslim, said Sentamu. Who knows, the Muslims may move out and before you know where you are more Christians have come into it. The question is: should that school be taken over by Christians? If it continues to deliver good all-round education why should someone want to say hand it over? It is not a question of who is in charge but what it delivers. When asked if he is troubled that Muslim schools might not treat girls equally, he replied: Muslim schools I know of are very well run. They invite me to talk about God because under the national curriculum religious education classes must include the teaching of comparative religion. So you have fantastic dialogue. In the long run I want to say to people, Could we be slightly more relaxed?
