Report: Islamic plot to control schools

LONDON — A British government investigation has found evidence that Muslim fundamentalists successfully gained control of some schools to promote aggressive religious values.

The report, published Tuesday, said some pupils in Birmingham, Britain’s second-largest city, were encouraged to “adopt an unquestioning attitude to a particular hard-line strand of Sunni Islam.”

It also criticized the Birmingham City Council for failing to alert authorities of practices that made teachers worry that pupils were learning to be intolerant of diversity. Investigators did not find any evidence of violent extremism.

The investigation followed an anonymous letter that triggered several inquiries, one of which found “a culture of fear and intimidation” in some Birmingham schools.

— The Associated Press

1773 church destroyed by fire

HEBRON, Md. — A 241-year-old church on the National Register of Historic Places has been ravaged by fire here.

The state fire marshal’s office says the fire was reported at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church just before midday Tuesday. Officials say nearly 100 firefighters from Maryland and Delaware fought the flames. No injuries were reported.

The Rev. Ronald Knapp, St. Paul’s pastor, told The Daily Times of Salisbury that the wood-frame building had been in place since 1773. A church website notes the building had been used as a place of worship since before American independence.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

— The Associated Press

Evangelical group meets opposition

PORTLAND, Ore. — The arrival of an evangelical Christian group in heavily-secular Portland has raised the ire of some residents.

Child Evangelism Fellowship began hosting child-oriented gatherings called Good News Clubs throughout the city on Monday. The organizers hope to bring in children between the ages of 5 and 12.

Opponents of the group say it presents a fundamentalist view of Christianity that should be rejected. Protect Portland Children took out a full-page newspaper ad to oppose the outreach.

Child Evangelism Fellowship vice president Moises Esteves says the group is trying to engage with a younger audience that may not have heard the gospel message. He says opponents are part of an atheist effort to dismantle Christian outreach.

— The Associated Press

Lawmakers get mail from Warren Jeffs

SALT LAKE CITY — More letters from Warren Jeffs, the imprisoned leader of a polygamous sect, are streaming into the mailboxes of Utah legislators.

The letters arrive via U.S. Postal Service, but they used to come in FedEx shipments with postmarks from Hilldale, Utah. One typed letter dated June 14 is signed from Palestine, Texas, where Jeffs is in prison. He’s serving a life sentence for sexually assaulting girls he considered brides. Members of his church, a radical offshoot of mainstream Mormonism, believe polygamy brings exaltation in heaven.

The volume, an inch and a half thick, proclaims Jeffs’ innocence, and demands the sect be left alone and pending court cases against it be dropped.

— The Associated Press