The Bishop of Oxford was sent a death threat calling for his beheading after backing a plan to broadcast the Muslim call to prayer. The Rt Rev John Pritchard today told a meeting discussing the issue he had received a bundle of “extraordinary mail” containing a number of threats.
The Bishop gave his backing, in principle, for the call to prayer to be broadcast from the Oxford Central Mosque, in Manzil Way, East Oxford, in interviews with the Oxford Mail and local radio in January.
Speaking at a public meeting organised by the Anglo Asian Association in East Oxford at Oxford Community School, he said: “After the interview, I received extraordinary mail. One said, on a piece of A4, ‘resign’ six times in large font. One called on me to be beheaded and one said ‘I wish I was closer so I could spit on you’. The dark underbelly of British society was coming out.”
Update: See also “Bishop’s death threats over mosque plan”, Daily Telegraph, 11 March 2008