A quite disturbing story has been forwarded to this blog from one of my contacts in the London Borough of Redbridge. A Nativity scene in the centre of Ilford has been vandalised and the vandals beheaded the figure of the Baby Jesus.

My first thought when I heard about this incident and knowing that Ilford is a bit of a nightlife centre was to ascribe this desecration to drunks or idiots whose only motivations were alcohol or a mindless desire for destruction. But, when I found out who put up the Nativity scene I started to wonder whether there may well be a religious motive behind this vandalism.

According to a report in a recent issue of the Ilford Recorder newspaper, the Nativity scene was paid for and installed by the Pakistani Christian Association. The fact that it was Pakistani Christians behind the provision of the Nativity scene may well have enraged some of the more violent and hateful elements of the Muslim community in this increasingly Islamised borough. It is not beyond the bounds of probability that Muslims did this, especially when one considers the way that Christians are treated in Pakistan, which to be quite frank is slightly worse than dirt.

The Ilford Recorder said:

A nativity scene has been “destroyed by idiots” outside the Christmas tree in the High Road.

The statues were installed and paid for by the British Pakistani Christian Association (BPCA) to remind residents about the real meaning of Christmas and while the Virgin Mary and Joseph were smashed, the infant Jesus got decapitated.

One resident, who is not religious, reported the crime to the Recorder and described the incident as “religious desecration”.

“It is three days before Christmas and this happens,” she said.

“Any other religion and there would be an outcry and it would have been fixed already.

“It is a desecration of a religious icon – I am disgusted.”

She reported the incident to Redbridge Town Hall but claims they refused to deal with it as it was not their nativity scene and were about to go to lunch.

This act of vandalism is bad enough in itself, but the attitude of Redbridge council employees when a member of the public reported the vandalism is pretty appalling as well. The attitude smacks of council workers not wanting to deal with an obvious problem and the way this member of the public was treated is disgusting. I wonder how the council workers would have behaved if it was a religious symbol or artefact associated with another religion, Islam for instance? In that case I suspect that these council employees may not have behaved in such a rude and dismissive to a non religious member of the public making such a complaint.

Sadly, this is not the first time that a Nativity scene has been vandalised in Redbridge. The British Pakistani Christian Association has had problems dealing with council officers over the issue of a Nativity scene. As a story from the BPCA’s website from 2017 shows.

The British Pakistani Christian Association said:

After vandals destroyed the last Christmas Nativity scene figures in 2001, Redbridge Council decided to terminate the annual expression of the Christian faith, removing the captivating reminder of the birth of Jesus, which is the very reason for the celebration of Christmas. The Council have instead chosen to focus on Christmas Trees and Santa as local celebrations of Christmas become increasingly commercial.

However Churches of Redbridge have hit back and on a front page article in the Ilford Recorder this week (click here) demanded the return of the Nativity to the town hall steps, in order to preserve an ancient British custom and to revert to the true meaning of Christmas.

Moreover, In an on-line poll undertaken by the Ilford Recorder to which over 600 people responded – which is a very good number of responses for their surveys – over 83% of those polled were in favour of a return of the nativity scene.

The polling both formal and informal, from residents of all faiths, including some Muslims, favoured the idea of a Nativity scene and the council said that they would work with groups who wanted to put a Nativity display on.

However, the British Pakistani Christian Association claim they have not had the best of welcomes from Redbridge Council officers.

The BPCA added:

Our initial discussions with Redbridge Facilities Management Department were stonewalled. In fact when our Chairman Wilson Chowdhry referred to the comments by the Leader of the Council who committed the council to ‘work with any group’ in reintroducing the nativity, he was met with a look of complete unbelief.  However the management team agreed to look into the matter. Mr Chowdhry called daily and 8 days later demanded a meeting at the town hall steps telling council staff that he would not accept any further delay as any nativity purchased would need to be bought soon to be in time for Christmas. After some wrangling a location was agreed. Now we have to raise the funds!

It looks to me as if the council were stalling over the issue of the Nativity scene. At the very least the Facilities Managment team should have been aware of and been prepared to work with groups that wanted to put up a Nativity scene as per the statement by the leader of Redbridge Council. It should not take 8 days of calls from Mr Chowdhury and a protest on the steps of the Town Hall merely to get a Nativity scene approved. Britain is a state with an Established church and therefore there are no tricky issues regarding the separation of church and state as there are in some other jurisdictions such as the United States for example. There was nothing legally or constitutionally that would have prevented Redbridge Facilities Management from approving this Nativity scene plan or from working with the British Pakistani Christian Association. It’s not even as if the council can claim that finance matters would prevent them saying yes to a Nativity scene as the BPCA were going to pay for it themselves. The council’s excuse for not having a Nativity scene appears to be ‘why bother it will only get vandalised’, but that’s not good enough, the council should be asking why such a display would be vandalised?

I suppose that it is possible, on the off chance, that the recent vandalism of the Nativity scene was, if not carried out by drunks, could have been done by a gang of marauding Puritans, upset by what they may have perceived as ‘idolatry’ because of the representation of Jesus, but I doubt it. Angry Puritans are not a major force in Redbridge’s local politics or society, Islam on the other hand is. There is a strong possibility that this worrying act of vandalism is the work of Muslim extremists and sadly I doubt whether either Redbridge Council or the Metropolitan Police will do anything to either catch the culprits or prevent such vandalism happening again,