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Archbishop of Canterbury denounces treatment of terror suspects


The Archbishop of Canterbury is planning to give an outspoken sermon on Christmas Day, criticising the detention without trial of suspected terrorists in the UK and America. The Sunday Times revealed yesterday, that in his first Christmas as leader of the Anglican Communion, Dr Rowan Williams is also expected to attack the French government's plans to ban religious symbols, particularly headscarves, in schools - calling it "very provocative and very destructive." "There is no such thing as a neutral public space in which everybody has to put aside that which makes them distinctive," he said. Dr Williams said that the imprisonment without trial of nine British Muslims in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and 14 men in Belmarsh jail, south London, was jeopardising the efforts of moderate Muslims to foster democracy and religious tolerance in places like Iraq. In his sermon he is expected to say that current policy could make even moderate British Muslims feel they are being targeted as part of the war on terror. He said: "If we want to persuade moderate Muslims to sign up to toleration and pluralism of the right kind, anything that gives the impression that we are targeting Muslims is problematic. "We have a lot of ground to make up."

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