Christians and Muslims alike were angered as officials at a US college removed a cross from a campus chapel in the spirit of diversity and to make the chapel more "welcoming to all".

The College of William and Mary in Virginia has kept the gold cross on the altar of the Sir Christopher Wren Chapel for more than 60 years.

"The effort here is to make certain that everyone feel it's their space," said William and Mary's vice president of student affairs, Sam Sadler. "Also, we are a public university, committed to serving everyone."

A group of students have started a petition to have the cross restored to the chapel at http://www.SavetheWrenCross.org.

Recently in the UK, Christians and Muslims have banded together and told officials across the country to 'please stop taking Christianity out of Christmas' because it causes more problems than it solves.

Local officials have been criticised in recent years for moves that include re-naming their Christmas celebrations "Winterval" and avoiding the use of Christian symbols in order to avoid offending Muslims and Hindus.

But officials at the Christian Muslim Forum, which was established by the Archbishop of Canterbury, said such moves played into the hands of extremists who then blame Muslims for undermining Britain's Christian culture.

"The desire to secularise religious festivals is in itself offensive to both our communities," said Dr Ataullah Siddiqui, vice chairman of the forum.