Archbishop of Canterbury takes swipe at Donald Trump, agrees with Pope Francis that 'building walls' is not Christian
Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, has taken as swipe at Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for U.S. president, intimating that he is not Christian.
According to The Telegraph, as Welby was giving evidence to the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, Labour MP Chuka Umunna asked if he agrees with the pope's remark that: "A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian."
The archbishop replied: "Yes I do agree with Pope Francis."
Umunna also asked if Welby thought it unchristian for someone to suspect an entire religion and ban the members of that religion from entering a country.
"It is certainly not a Christian thing to do nor is it a rational thing to do," he said. "It does not respect the dignity of the human being."
Trump had expressed an intention to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. and wants a wall built between the U.S. and Mexico -- and have Mexico pay for it. Although he said he could "make exceptions" on the ban such as for sports events, he once again fanned the flames when he expressed that a judge could be biased against him because of the latter's Mexican heritage, something that many view as a racist remark.
"Donald Trump represents the politics of fear and division, where you seek to blame other people for the worlds problems as opposed to coming together to solve them," Umunna told The Huffington Post after the hearing. "His peddling of fear will do nothing to make the world a safer and more prosperous place."
The archbishop, during his testimony, also said that the view of U.K. Independence Party leader Nigel Farage -- that women could be at risk because of migrants -- can be seen as "racist." Figel earlier warned that if the country stays as a member of European Union, women in the country could in danger of mass sex attacks by gangs composed of migrant men if migration into the U.K. is not controlled.
"I think that is an inexcusable pandering to people's worries and prejudices," Welby said. "That's giving legitimisation to racism which I've seen in parishes in which I've served, and has led to attacks on people in those parishes. And we cannot legitimise that ... what that is, is accentuating fear for political gain and that is absolutely inexcusable."
Welby told the Members of Parliament that more immigrants should be allowed into the U.K. because the country is not "full" and that there should be "safe and legal routes" for refugees and asylum seekers to get there.
"If I'm honest, no, I don't think Britain is full ... we can take more people in, but we have to think very, very hard about doing it," he said. "You can do the right thing in such a way as it becomes the wrong thing."
