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A British lawmaker is sounding the alarm over what he calls “two-tier justice” against Christians in the United Kingdom, telling Fox News Digital it is now “open season” to discriminate against believers while accusing authorities of allowing extremist Islamist preachers to operate as Christian pastors face harassment and arrest.
Lord Jackson of Peterborough, vice chair of a parliamentary group focused on religious freedom, made the charge while discussing Finnish parliamentarian Päivi Räsänen, a Christian politician whose statements about marriage and sexuality have put her at the center of a years-long European battle over religious expression and free speech.
“It does say a lot about the concerns that many of us have about attacks on Christians, and two-tier justice as between Christians and other faiths, and the fact that Christians, are, it’s open season to discriminate against Christians in the United Kingdom now, and that’s a very regrettable position,” Jackson told Fox News Digital in an interview.
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Räsänen said British authorities canceled her electronic travel authorization, or ETA, in July before she applied for a visa, following her recent “hate speech” conviction over passages in a church booklet discussing homosexuality, raising fresh concerns among religious freedom advocates about the consequences of the ruling.
According to ADF International, which has been representing Räsänen in litigation, Räsänen was granted a U.K. visa on Aug. 21, but not in time for her to speak in person about free speech at an event in Northern Ireland.
“Räsänen was still blocked from speaking in person about free speech at an event in Northern Ireland yesterday, since she was granted her visa too late to attend,” Alliance Defending Freedom International said in an Aug. 22 X post. “Räsänen was informed at 6.45pm last night that her visa application had been successful, and at 7.30pm she spoke remotely at the event, where she mentioned she was blocked from attending in person due to her ETA being cancelled in July.”
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“We do not have the same free speech protections that are available to citizens of the United States,” Jackson said. “And in this case, this particular lady expressed views, traditional views based on scripture of her belief in a relationship in the eyes of God between a man and a woman, a relationship, that marriage between a man and a woman is central to societal stability, and that she was speaking what she had read in the Bible, and the fact was that activists have used her words and her sincere faith-based beliefs to attack her and to use lawfare to ensure that she is stigmatized and criminalized.”
Jackson, who has served in the House of Lords, the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, since November 2022, said he believes Muslims in the country are treated differently than Christians.
“Extreme Islamist preachers being allowed to preach in parts of the United Kingdom whilst at the same time Christian pastors are being harassed and arrested on the street, that cannot stand, that’s completely unacceptable,” Jackson claimed.
The British lawmaker said some of his peers are working to change direction and have greater protections over free speech.
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“We’re fighting back in parliament and outside parliament,” Jackson said. “We’re working with various advocacy groups such as Christian Concern, the Christian Institute and others, and we’re giving legal support to those people who are under attack. Women who, for instance, don’t want to undress in a changing room with transgender women, i.e. men, women who are proud to wear a crucifix or a cross at work, and they are found to be committing a so-called microaggression.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to the U.K. Home Office for comment.
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