BA Cross Controversy

How it all began...
In September of this year, a duty manager at Heathrow requested that Nadia remove her cross, which was behind a company cravat. When she refused to remove it, she was suspended from work without pay. BA had said that the airline uniform code did not permit staff to wear visible jewellery whilst on duty without permission from the management.

However, rules drawn up by BA’s ‘diversity team’ and ‘uniform committee’ do permit Sikh employees to wear the traditional iron bangle, even though this could clearly be described as jewellery. BA also permits Muslims to wear headscarves.

Miss Eweida had a petition of support signed by more than 200 fellow employees, and received widespread support from fellow Christians. Nadia believes that the cross is an illustration of her deep faith, indeed, it is a manifestation of her faith, and as such is protected by Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

BA faces boycott as travellers get really cross
British Airways faced the prospect of a growing boycott by international travellers yesterday over its refusal to allow a check-in worker to wear a small Christian cross over her uniform.An internet website was set up to co-ordinate an angry response to the airline's suspension of Nadia Eweida.

And a Church of England vicar went on BBC Radio 4's Today programme to urge people to shun the airline because he said it effectively discriminated against Christians.

The Rev Tony Kelso, from Matchborough, West Midlands, told The Daily Telegraph: "It is ludicrous that British Airways has the Union Flag on their tail fins which is made up of sacred crosses from our United Kingdom and yet it practises this discrimination against Christians.

"They have put themselves in a massive big hole and don't know how to get out."
More from The Daily Telegraph.

Fox News Interview

"Hannity & Colmes" exclusive: Nadia Eweida and her lawyer from the Center for Judeo-Christian Law and Ethics, Paul Diamond.
Read here.


UN Intervenes
United Nations human rights chiefs have raised concerns over British Airways' ban on its workers wearing the cross. Senior UN officials and diplomats regard the suppression of Christianity by a major British company as a sign of worldwide drift into rising religious intolerance.

They are to raise the issue at the weekend at a major international meeting to mark the 25th anniversary of the UN declaration against religious discrimination. BA's refusal to allow a check-in worker to wear a tiny cross will be on the agenda of the gathering in Prague alongside more deadly religious conflicts in troubled parts of the world.
More from The Evening Standard.

Christian Concern for Our Nation
Andrea Minichiello Williams of the Lawyers Christian Fellowship has said, “This application of BA’s uniform policy is clearly inconsistent. We would like to see a level-playing field. BA has allowed some employees freedom to express their faith but Nadia has been denied this right.”
More.

Barnabas Fund
The time has come for Christians to stand up for what they believe, to stand with Nadia in her desire that the cross should not be hidden. Secularism and pluralism have reduced Christianity to a nonentity. Many Christians have unwittingly fallen prey to the gradual neutralisation of the Christian faith. If the most basic symbol of Christianity is to be removed from public life, if the cross is to be viewed as mere jewellery, then the Christian faith will have become invisible in the UK.
Read more here.

BA Boycott
The site www.baboycott.com encourages people to destroy their British Airways frequent flyer cards, photograph the pieces and send the image to them digitally. It also offers advice on alternative flights.

Marcus Stafford, a Norfolk-based web designer who set it up, said: "This case was the last straw for me. I had just got so fed up with attacks on Englishness and Christianity that I decided to take action. "I am not an active Christian, more a cultural one, like most people in this country, but I just thought, no more."