AP News, December 25th, 2006
British Queen Elizabeth II called for greater religious tolerance in her annual Christmas message which was broadcast Monday over pictures of Muslims praying in a mosque, a Hindu temple and the monarch with the country's chief rabbi at a reception.
The 15-minute prerecorded speech aired in Britain and its former colonies and intermittently showed the queen dressed in a spring green outfit sitting and delivering her speech at Southwark Cathedral in London. At other times, her voice was heard over a video montage of footage shot over the previous year.
"It is very easy to concentrate on the differences between the religious faiths and to forget what they have in common _ people of different faiths are bound together by the need to help the younger generation to become considerate and active citizens," the queen said.
It was the first time the queen's Christmas address featured footage of Muslims praying in a mosque.
Britain's 1.5 million Muslims have been at the center of a number of controversies over the past year, from the focus on the threat of Islamist terrorism to a particularly heated debate on the full veil worn by some women.
The broadcast also featured scenes of the opening of Europe's largest Hindu temple the Shri Venkateswara (Balaji) in central England and from a reception attended by the queen and Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.
The queen also called for mutual respect between young and old in her speech.
The queen chooses a different theme for each annual address, the one occasion in the year when she pens her own speech without government advice. In last year's address, she focussed on the tragedy following the July 7 London transit bombings and the tsunami that ripped through southeast Asia on Dec. 26, 2004.
The monarch's Christmas address is a tradition that began with her grandfather, King George V, who delivered the first one in 1932.
