SCOTLAND: HARD LINE CHRISTIANS & MOSLEMS UNITE

Muslims rally to cause of hardline Christians
EDDIE BARNES

A HARDLINE Christian party which is campaigning against new rights for homosexuals has won significant support from Scotland's Muslim community in its bid to win a seat at next year's Holyrood elections.

The Christian Peoples' Alliance Scotland, which will field candidates at next year's vote, has gathered 1,000 signatures from Muslims in a petition opposing new laws that will allow gay couples to adopt.

A member of Glasgow's Central Mosque, Abdul Dean, who is standing for the party, claims it best represents his view on morality. A leading imam in Glasgow is also understood to have given his support.

Dean said: "A lot of Muslims have asked me why I am standing. My answer is simple: the CPA is the only political party that is based on values, rather than ideology."

He said he had been promised support from many of the estimated 30,000 Muslims in Glasgow, where he is standing.

The party is to campaign against any plans to allow homosexual sex to be taught in primary schools. The petitions issued by the party quote Nelson Mandela declaring: "There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way it treats its children".

Founded by former Labour activist Teresa Smith, the 'pro-family', 'pro-life' party has been backed by a Catholic bishop.

Smith said: "There is a momentum building against the secular parties." She added: "There was a huge intake of anti-Christian MSPs at the last elections in 2003: seven Green, six SSP MSPs, along with the existing Labour, Lib-Dem and SNP, combined to make the most vehement pro-feminist, pro-equality and anti-Christian government in Britain."

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1) Muslims rally to cause of hardline Christians