Senior religious and political figures condemned violence in the name of religion and spoke of the threat ISIS poses to Christians in their Christmas messages. “Any claim to justify violence in the name of God is abhorrent. It is always a corruption of true faith,” said Cardinal Vincent Nichols in his homily given at Midnight Mass in Westminster Cathedral. He spoke of Jesus as a vulnerable baby, the face of God’s mercy and how, just as there is no place for violence in the crib, there is no place for it in the world. “Let us be resolved to lay aside our own tendencies to angry violence so that we may condemn, with integrity, those who perpetrate such violence and claim for it the name of God,” he said. The cardinal called on those gathered to pray for victims of the violence, especially “for our Christian brothers and sisters who suffer grievously for their faith in Jesus” and the “children slaughtered out of hatred and fear of Jesus”. The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, also addressed the persecution of Christians in his Christmas Day sermon in Canterbury Cathedral. He called ISIS a “Herod of today” and went on to contrast Jesus’s message of hope with the vision put forward by jihadists. Referring to the events of Jesus’s birth, he said the shepherds witnessed an “apocalypse”, interpreting it as uncovering God’s purpose for the universe. The Queen used a quotation from the Bible in her Christmas message to address the violence in 2015: “It is true that the world has had to confront moments of darkness this year,” she said. “But the Gospel of John contains a verse of great hope, often read at Christmas carol services: ‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.’” Archbishop Welby said: “Jesus sets the benchmark for God’s dealing with the tyranny and cruelty of our world, for He is the Prince of Peace. We do not deny tyranny and cruelty, we do not compete with it: rather, we overcome as we allow ourselves to be defined by God’s true unveiling, transformed by His invading love.” Prime Minister David Cameron said Britain was a “Christian country” in his message, drawing attention to the persecution of Christians around the world, and the refugees fleeing Syria. “Millions of families are spending this winter in refugee camps,” he said.