A leading church group in Britain has warned of what it calls a "violent revolution" if the government continues its assault against religious freedom.
The Evangelical Alliance added "at some point there is not only the right, but the duty to disobey the state."
The statements come just weeks after British Airways suspended an employee from wearing a crucifix.
The London Telegraph reports that some are concerned that the group's revolutionary tone is similar to the one that comes from Muslim radicals.
The Evangelical Alliance, representing more than a million evangelicals in the UK, has welcomed the debate on the veil and the cross, and has launched a major new report entitled ‘Faith and Nation’.
In the report the Alliance calls on Christians and Muslims to continue to work together to tackle extremism, in the light of the government’s ‘Preventing Extremism Together’ initiative.
The issue has been the centre of a heated debate over the past few weeks, following the suspension of a Muslim teaching assistant who refused to remove her veil during class despite complaints from children that they could not understand her through it.
The debate has become so central in the British media that even Prime Minister Tony Blair has spoken out on the issue, last week saying that the veil could be seen as a “mark of separation”.
In addition, the spiritual head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has added to the debate, saying that he personally has no problem with Muslim women wearing a veil, although he does admit that there are certain questions over practicality.
