Unholy Alliance: Inside the Campaign to Pry India from the West

On December 6, 2022, a 45-year-old woman was arrested in Birmingham, England—on suspicion of praying. She was silently standing on a public footpath in the vicinity of a provider of abortion services. The police asked her if she was “part of a protest”, to which she answered “no”. They then asked her “are you praying?”, to which she answered “I might be praying in my head”. That was enough to provoke her arrest. Nine days later she was charged with “protesting and engaging in an act that is intimidating to service users”. This, despite the fact that at the time of her putative silent prayer, the facility was closed (i.e., there were no patients present to be intimidated by her silent reflections).[1]

If any country could be suspected of harbouring a social hostility to religion, it might be today’s largely atheistic United Kingdom. Or militantly secular France. Or social democratic Sweden. Or postmodern Australia, where a bill to prohibit “discrimination on the basis of a…