Nichols accuses extremists of perverting religion

CARDINAL Vincent Nichols has attacked the extremist group Islamic State (IS), describing the depth and scale of the barbarity it perpetrates as “unconscionable”.

In an address on Thursday to the Anglican ecumenical group the Nikaean Club, at Lambeth Palace, he said that the image of the executioner in IS videos, ­nicknamed “Jihadi John”, ­standing knife in hand over his victims, was “a message of ­defiance, of hatred, of revenge, of destruction.

“It is a statement of intent, of an ambition, which will tolerate no opposition or dissent. It is ­chilling and sobering, and it makes demands on all who ­treasure human decency and on democracies. In many ways this image is an annunciation. And, in its authors’ eyes, it is an annunciation of the ways of God.”

He compared that image to a painting by François Lemoyne he had seen recently of the annunciation of God’s news to Mary. “The angel comes to seek Mary’s consent. Jihadi John comes to impose his. The angel brings a message and gift of life … Jihadi John announces death … Mary represents all that is best in our humanity. Jihadi John, I suggest, represents all that is worst.”

The cardinal, who acknow-ledged that British Muslims have repeatedly condemned IS and their atrocities, went on to consider Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI’s argument for the crucial importance of a systematic ­exploration of the question of God through the use of reason.

“Pope Benedict’s teaching and the events of recent months highlight a challenge to us all,” said Cardinal Nichols. “The proclam­ation of our faith, our whole work of evangelisation, now takes place within a ­particular context, one in which, in different ways, the very notion of God is being ­publicly ­corrupted not only by those who refuse to see the ­rationality of faith but also by those who deny, by their actions, that faith and reason have ­anything at all in common.

“Jihadi John, in his blasphemous annunciation, corrupts the name of God.”