Foreign Office Suspends Homosexual-Muslim Diplomat Anjoum Noorani Over Memo Mocking Pope

DÜRER, Albrecht
Death of Orpheus
1494

Orpheus introduced homosexual love to Thrace and for that reason is beaten to death by two Thracian women during a bacchanal. The group of figures is placed before a central tree in which an open book with music is hanging. The classical singer's lyre is lying at his feet. In the tree a banderole with legends: "Orfeus der erst puseran" (Orpheus, the first pederast).

From Telegraph.co.uk

Foreign Office suspends diplomat Anjoum Noorani over memo mocking Pope

The diplomat who authorised a memo mocking the Pope has been suspended by the Foreign Office after Catholics reacted with fury to its contents.

By Gordon Rayner, Chief Reporter

Published: 7:00AM BST 29 Apr 2010

Anjoum Noorani, 31, has been told to stay at home while the department carries out a misconduct investigation.

When the memo was first leaked to The Sunday Telegraph, the Foreign Office said the civil servant had merely been “moved to other duties”.

But high-ranking Catholics both here and in the Vatican expressed dismay that more serious disciplinary action had not been taken, putting the Foreign Office under immense pressure to respond.

Mr Noorani’s suspension is reported in today’s edition of the Catholic journal The Tablet.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: “We can confirm that a member of staff has been suspended pending a misconduct investigation.”

The offending memo, titled “The Ideal Visit would see…”, was the result of a “brainstorm” session involving Mr Noorani and three junior members of the Papal Visit Team.

It suggested the Pope could launch his own range of condoms during his state visit in September, open an abortion clinic, bless a homosexual marriage and announce the sacking of “dodgy” bishops in the wake of the child abuse scandal within the Catholic church.

The document was emailed to Downing Street and to three Whitehall departments by Steven Mulvain, a 23-year-old Oxford graduate, with Mr Noorani’s blessing.

Bishops in England and Wales have condemned the memo, with some citing it as evidence of anti-Christian prejudice within the civil service.

Bishop Kieran Conry, of Arundel and Brighton, said: “It suggests that it is OK to ridicule and vilify the Catholic Church and its beliefs.”

Sir Peter Ricketts, Permanent Under Secretary at the Foreign Office, personally called the Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, to apologise after the memo was made public.