A court has ruled that a Christian child who was placed in the foster care of two Muslim households should now move in with her grandmother.
At a family court hearing last week, a judge said that the girl should live with a member of her family who could meet her needs “in terms of ethnicity, culture and religion”, the Times reported. The judge also ordered Tower Hamlets to conduct an investigation into issues raised by the newspaper’s reporting of the case.
According to the Times, the five-year-old girl, who speaks English as her first language, has been cared for by two Muslim families in the past six months.
The child had allegedly been “very distressed” by one family telling her to remove her crucifix necklace, and preventing her from eating a carbonara meal because it contained bacon.
She was also reportedly encouraged to learn Arabic and was begging not to go back to the family because “they do not speak English”.
Tower Hamlets council released a statement in which it said there had been inaccuracies about the case included in the Times’s reports.
“While we cannot go into details of a case that would identify a child in foster care, there are inaccuracies in the reporting of it,” a spokes-man said.
“For example, the child is in fact fostered by an English-speaking family of mixed race in this temporary placement. We would like to give more details but we are legally restricted to do so.
“We have always been working towards the child being looked after by a family member and we continue to do so.”
Anglicanism in steep decline as youth turn from religion
For the first time, more than half of Britons say they are not religious, a survey suggests.
The National Centre for Social Research found that 53 per cent of adults described themselves as having “no religion” in a survey of 2,942 people. The figure was even higher among those aged 18 to 25, with 71 per cent saying they had no religious affiliation.
The biggest decline was among self-described Anglicans, whose numbers have collapsed by 50 per cent in under two decades. Just 15 per cent of Britons now identify as Anglican, down from 30 per cent in 2000. Among the under-25s, the figure is as low as three per cent, compared to 40 per cent of those aged 75 and over.
By contrast, the number of Catholics has remained stable, staying around 10 per cent over the past 30 years.
Religious affiliation is falling among every age group, even among the older demographics, although “no religion” still remains a minority option among the oldest groups.
The Anglican Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Rev Paul Bayes, said the figures were “troubling” but pointed out: “People are more willing to be honest and say they have ‘no religion’ rather than casually saying they are ‘CofE’.”
Bishop Davies launches mission team
Bishop Mark Davies has announced a Youth Mission Team to support young people in the Diocese of Shrewsbury.
The team will include clergy and lay volunteers along with a full-time director and two full-time workers.
It will reach out to parishes and secondary schools and organise events, as well as engaging with social media.
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