Prejudice against Christians seems to be at a fever pitch. I was chatting to an Anglican priest today who told me that he was with a group of non-Christians who, when asked what a clerical collar meant to them, said they associated it with paedophilia.

Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens are paying a lawyer in an attempt to have the Pope arrested when he visits the UK in September – not, I am sure, to satisfy even their own fanciful and provincial sense of atheistic justice, but to discredit and preferably destroy the Catholic Church.

Christians in the workplace are being singled out and made examples of by what Archbishop George Carey believes are biased judges:

The Church and the judiciary are two of the most venerable pillars of the establishment.

But in an explosive development, war has been declared between them over one of the most fundamental aspects of our society – freedom of religious conscience.

In an unprecedented move, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, and other church leaders are calling upon the Master of the Rolls and other senior judges to stand down from future Court of Appeal hearings involving cases of religious discrimination because of the judges’ perceived bias against Christianity.

Christian hoteliers, although they won their case for the supposed hate crime of calling Mohammed a warlord and expressing the opinion that Muslim women are oppressed, are still losing their business:

The two Christian hoteliers cleared last year of insulting a Muslim guest are being forced to sell up because their business has collapsed.

Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang are putting their nine-bedroom hotel up for auction in May because they can no longer pay the mortgage.

Despite donations sent to them by Christian supporters from around the world, they still have debts of well over £400,000.

Meanwhile, although a Christian woman is not allowed to wear a cross for fear that it might scratch a patient, Muslim women are allowed unhygienic long sleeves for “religious reasons”:

Muslim doctors and nurses are to be allowed to wear long sleeves for religious reasons – despite the risk of spreading deadly superbugs.

The Department of Health will allow female Muslim staff to opt out of a strict NHS dress code to cover their arms and protect their modesty.

But campaigners warn that the NHS is putting lives at risk because guidance that all staff should be ‘bare below the elbow’ was introduced after long sleeves were blamed for spreading MRSA.

So long Western Civilisation, it was nice while it lasted.