{"id":17193,"date":"2016-08-31T08:12:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-31T08:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=17193"},"modified":"2016-08-31T08:12:00","modified_gmt":"2016-08-31T08:12:00","slug":"uk-churches-must-prepare-for-is-attacks-counter-terrorism-experts-warn-acn-malta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/08\/31\/uk-churches-must-prepare-for-is-attacks-counter-terrorism-experts-warn-acn-malta\/","title":{"rendered":"UK &#8211;  \u201cChurches must prepare for IS attacks \u201ccounter-terrorism experts warn &#8211; ACN Malta"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><h2 class=\"null\"><strong>UK &#8211;\u00a0<\/strong><strong>\u201c<\/strong><strong>Churches must prepare for IS<\/strong> <strong>attacks<\/strong><strong> \u201c<\/strong><strong>counter-terrorism experts warn <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Following attacks by Islamic extremists on Catholic priests in Indonesia and France in recent weeks, counter terrorism experts fear Islamic State supporters will target churches in the UK and other European countries. The attacks prompted counter terrorism experts to rewrite advice for religious institutions in the UK.<\/p>\n<p>Churches and other religious institutions are described as \u201ceasy targets\u201d in the new guidelines, called Counter Terrorism Advice for Churches, which are being issued amid fears an attack &#8221;is coming.&#8221;They urge church leaders to be on alert for attackers, who are likely to be armed with knives.<\/p>\n<p>Counter-terrorism expert Nick Tolson, who is an expert in dealing with terrorist threats is rewriting the guidelines for National Churchwatch, an organization which specializes in safety advice for clergy and church workers. The latest advice issued to churches urges them to prepare for similar attacks to those in France and Indonesia, including learning how to identify a semi-automatic weapon, how to challenge a suspicious person and how to take cover in the event of gunfire.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u201cSince the French attack we have to look at the possibility of an attack on a church in this country. The risk level has gone up,\u201d Tolson\u00a0 said. \u201cChurches in the past were considered low risk &#8211; now we know an attack is coming &#8230; and churches are one of the easy targets. He added \u201cIt\u2019s likely to be a knife, not a machine gun, but we are covering that too.\u201d The guidelines also feature images of handguns and semi-automatic AK-47 rifles.<\/p>\n<p>Church leaders are being told to evacuate a congregation in the event someone pulls out a knife. \u201cThey are at risk. It only takes seconds for someone to stab a large number of people as we have seen.\u201d Religious leaders are urged to respond quickly to an attack\u201cto give you the best chance of survival.\u201d The report says: &#8220;It does not matter whether they have a pistol, rifle or a machine gun. A firearm will kill a large number of people very quickly.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Special advice is given on how to handle Sunday School children who may get separated from their parents : &#8220;Obviously the safety of children is paramount and understandably the parents will be frantic.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u201cWe used to say hide under the table, but [terrorists] will come and shoot you. Now it\u2019s all about running away,\u201d Tolson said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you saw [the attacks] in Nice the police were shouting to run &#8211; the new guidance is about getting distance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Clergy have also been advised by counter-terror chiefs not to wear collars in public to prevent them being targeted. This is similar to earlier anti-terrorist advice given to the military who are no longer allowed to wear uniform except when on duty and to police who were advised to leave their uniforms at the station when they go home.<\/p>\n<p>The new anti-terrorism Guidelines for UK Churches were issued two days after an IS suicide bomber attempted to blow himself up during mass in a Catholic church in the Indonesian city of Medan.<\/p>\n<p>The Metropolitan Police\u2019s deputy assistant commissioner Neil Basu also wrote to UK church congregations as a direct response to the murder of Fr Hamel in France: &#8220;We are again reminded of the indiscriminate nature of terrorism and the brutal and senseless actions of these criminals.\u201d He added: &#8220;Church leaders and their congregations here in the UK should remain alert not alarmed. There is no current intelligence to suggest any attack planning of this nature in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;However I know these are troubling times and it makes sense for all church leaders to review their security plans and to encourage their flock to be vigilant.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>ACN Malta<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UK &#8211;\u00a0\u201cChurches must prepare for IS attacks \u201ccounter-terrorism experts warn &nbsp; Following attacks by Islamic extremists on Catholic priests in Indonesia and France in recent weeks, counter terrorism experts fear Islamic State supporters will target churches in the UK and other European countries. The attacks prompted counter terrorism experts to rewrite advice for religious institutions&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17269,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>UK - \u201cChurches must prepare for IS attacks \u201ccounter-terrorism experts warn - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/08\/31\/uk-churches-must-prepare-for-is-attacks-counter-terrorism-experts-warn-acn-malta\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UK - \u201cChurches must prepare for IS attacks \u201ccounter-terrorism experts warn - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"UK &#8211;\u00a0\u201cChurches must prepare for IS attacks \u201ccounter-terrorism experts warn &nbsp; Following attacks by Islamic extremists on Catholic priests in Indonesia and France in recent weeks, counter terrorism experts fear Islamic State supporters will target churches in the UK and other European countries. 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