What Is Causing British Muslims and Christians to Unite?

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

"De-Christianize" Efforts

A partnership of Muslims and Christians is denouncing what it describes as efforts to "de-Christianize British society." The Christian-Muslim forum says civic officials who remove references to Christianity from Christmas are actually becoming "recruiting agents for the extreme right." It cites the removal of the word "Christmas" from one town's winter festival — and the printing of Christmas stamps with no Christian theme.

The group says those things provoke antagonism toward Muslims and others by “foisting on them an anti-Christian agenda they do not hold." The forum believes Christmas should be celebrated as the birth of Jesus and says the desire to secularize religious festivals is offensive to both the Christian and Muslim communities.

Patriotic Display

Tony Bui is a patriotic Vietnamese immigrant in Atlanta who built replicas of the Statue of Liberty and the Liberty Bell — in his front yard. He says he spent his life savings on the patriotic display — and is refusing demands by local government officials to move it. Bui says he endured 45 days on a fishing boat to get to the U.S. 30 years ago, and feels the threat to fine him over his display is a violation of his free speech rights.

An official with the Dekalb County zoning board says that while no one wants to vote against the Statue of Liberty, the tribute is too close to the street and must be moved.

Vote For Andy

A Wisconsin sheriff's candidate who legally changed his name to "Andy Griffith" in order to get attention, may not be too happy with the attention he's getting now. He’s being sued — by the real Andy Griffith. The actor says the candidate violated trademark and copyright laws. He wants damages, court fees, a published apology and an order that the man give up the name.

Candidate Andy Griffith — whose given name is Will Fenrick — is actually a music store owner who ran for sheriff as an independent after denouncing speed traps by saying — "they never did that in Mayberry." The candidate didn't win but he did get 1,200 votes.

He calls the actor's lawsuit absurd and says "for such an American icon, it's a pretty un-American thing to do."

November Surprise

And Democratic Party officials in Union County, North Carolina got a surprise last week when they found out their winning candidate for a seat on the Soil and Water Conservation Board … had been dead for a month.

The party ran newspaper ads endorsing Sam Duncan the weekend before the election — and they worked — he won by 12,000 votes.

County election officials knew that Duncan had died — but no one told the party or the voters. Said the county elections director: "It's not our job to do that." And a former sheriff who voted for Duncan said he was shocked to hear "that poor Sam was gone."

—FOX News Channel's Martin Hill contributed to this report.