"Cry God for Harry, England, and Allah!" Henry V, Act III, William Shakespeare, revised, 2023
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GB News reported Wednesday that “an annual St George’s Day dinner has been cancelled by an Oxford college.” Magdalen College “usually holds an annual banquet to mark the day of the English saint, with students and academics dining together to enjoy a traditional feast.” It’s understandable that the college would take this step: the patron saint of England has been out of favor for years now.
As far back as 2006, the UK’s Daily Mail reported that “the Church of England is considering rejecting England’s patron saint St George on the grounds that his image is too warlike and may offend Muslims.” St. George didn’t end up getting deep-sixed altogether, but he was severely deemphasized, and not just by the Church of England. In May 2013, the Telegraph noted that in the town of Radstock, Somerset, “a local council decided against flying the flag of St George after concerns were raised that it would offend the town’s 16 Muslim residents.” In April 2016, according to the Express, the Bristol City Council “refused to host St George’s Day celebrations because the area is ‘too multicultural.’”
How long will it be before Muslim students there realize who their college is named after?
