Elderly
people living in sheltered housing have been told to remove religious symbols
from shared areas by the organisation in Preston which runs the complex.

A letter to the residents from the organisation, Places for People, asked them to become
“equality and diversity” champions.

The ban has
been attacked by both Christian and Muslim religious leaders, according to The
Daily Telegraph.

Fr Andrew
Teather, who runs visits residents of the sheltered housing complex, asked
Places for People to think again.

He said: “I
have never found any religious tensions between people of different faiths,
although one often finds antagonism from people who are not themselves
religious towards people who are.”

Salim
Desai, a Muslim member of Preston city council, said: “We get a lot of our
morals from religion and I would prefer people follow religion, Christian or
Muslim, and have morals rather than no morals at all”.

A Places
for People spokesman defended the ban on religious symbols saying they are
allows in the residents’ homes and that his organisation “has a long tradition
of embracing and promoting cultural diversity”.