The moderator of the Church of Scotland has accused the far right of hijacking Christian symbols and warned of a surge of racism and antisemitism.
The Right Rev Rosie Frew said she was frightened by the level of hatred directed at Jewish and Muslim communities in Scotland.
In a Christmas message, she said: “We do see the far right trying to use our symbols and our language. Jesus said, quite simply, ‘Treat other people the way you want to be treated yourself’. Every religion would agree on that. It’s the golden rule.
“The Christ I see is welcoming and loving. Where do we see that love today? What does it mean to show Christ’s love in Scotland and Britain now?”
Were Jesus were alive today he would “welcome refugees with open arms”, she said, adding that compassion for the most vulnerable was a core value of her faith. Reflecting on the experience of asylum seekers, Frew said she had tried to imagine what it must feel like to be confined to temporary accommodation while being publicly vilified.
“You’ve left goodness knows what behind and you’re sitting in a hotel while, outside, people are arguing about whether you should be here,” she said in The Herald on Sunday. “All that language of hate — ‘Burn the hotels down, kill the people inside’ — where does that come from? It’s not a Scotland I recognise.”
In September, some of England’s most prominent Christian leaders signed a letter to The Sunday Times accusing anti-immigration marchers of “misusing” the cross at the “United the Kingdom” rally in London. Frew singled out that event’s organiser, Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, for criticism.
Academics have recorded a dramatic rise in far-right street activity in Scotland in recent months, including dozens of protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers and attempts, inspired by a supporter of Robinson, to stop four migrant mothers from attending English lessons at their children’s Glasgow primary. Richard McFarlane, an activist for the far-right group Patriotic Alternative, addressed a rally outside Falkirk’s Cladhan Hotel in September.
An anti-immigration protest outside the Cladhan Hotel in Falkirk, where asylum seekers were being housed
CAMERON SCOTT/ZUMA PRESS/SHUTTERSTOCK
During a recent Shia Muslim event in Edinburgh, Frew said, she had been struck by conversations with members of minority faith communities who told her that living in Scotland now felt as it had when they were children.
She said: “Scotland is their home — they’ve lived here all their lives — but the hatred they are experiencing now and the fear they are feeling in Scotland makes you think: where is that Scotland which is a welcoming place? We are going through the most awful time at the moment, whether it’s antisemitism or our Muslim brothers and sisters feeling afraid to live in Edinburgh. What’s gone wrong?”
Jewish leaders in Scotland said they were braced for violent attacks after atrocities in Manchester and Australia. Concerns have been voiced about the language used by some pro-Palestine protesters, including Glasgow University students who celebrated the October 7 terror attacks in Israel.
NASUWT, one of the UK’s largest teaching unions, said members across Scotland had reported a rise in hate incidents involving pupils and staff, coinciding with the intensification of anti-immigration discourse.
Mike Corbett, the union’s national officer for Scotland, said he was particularly alarmed by a “disturbing development” in which anti-migrant protesters were targeting primary schools as well as hotels used to accommodate asylum seekers.