Speculation swirls that Charles secretly converted to Islam By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Saturday, April 04, 2026Quick SummaryAI SummaryKing Charles III faces backlash for not issuing an Easter message this year.Public and Christian leaders express disappointment over the king’s decision.Concerns arise about the neglect of Christian heritage, showing favor to Islam.
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Britain’s King Charles III waves from the Buckingham Palace balcony in London, United Kingdom, after his coronation on May 6, 2023. | OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images
King Charles III has prompted concern from members of the public and some Christian leaders in the United Kingdom for declining to issue a formal Easter message to his subjects this year, despite offering one last year and commemorating Ramadan with a statement in February.
King Charles III and Queen Camilla held the Royal Maundy service on Thursday in Wales for only the second time in its 800-year history, though the king’s lack of an Easter message, which was confirmed by Buckingham Palace, raised eyebrows from many on social media, including some who speculated he might have secretly converted to Islam.
Ceirion H. Dewar, a traditionalist Anglican bishop who penned an open letter to the king last month, warning that the Christian heritage of the U.K. is being “deliberately eroded” and faces growing hostility amid surging Islam, told GB News that he is “bitterly disappointed” by the lack of a royal Easter message this year.
“There isn’t a royal precedent for releasing a message, but since coming to the throne, Charles has chosen to do so every year,” he said. “Having just issued a Ramadan and Eid Mubarak message for the Islamic community, choosing not to give an Easter message is bitterly disappointing.”
“It does not meet the expectations you would expect from the monarch,” he added. “Christians will be heartbroken, having learned the defender of the faith has ignored them.”
Dewar suggested that the historically Protestant English monarch neglecting to issue a statement commemorating the most important Christian holiday is “so much worse” than simply being syncretistic.
Godfrey Bloom, an English author and former member of the European Parliament, echoed concerns that Charles might be Muslim, accused him of betraying his constitutional role and urged him to abdicate.
“You are of no use to this country whatsoever,” Bloom said. “You have failed in every conceivable way in your relatively short period of time on the throne.”
“In the name of God, go!” he added, quoting Oliver Cromwell’s famous line to the Rump Parliament during the English Civil War in 1653.
The Greatest Betrayal In English History – My Easter Message To Our MUSLIM King pic.twitter.com/5DFp3Risn1
— Godfrey Bloom – The New Philosophers (@Godfrey_Bloom) April 3, 2026
Stephen Kuhrt, who serves as the Anglican vicar of Christ Church, New Malden in England, said he believes the king’s lack of an Easter message was ill-advised, but is being misinterpreted.
“If the king was going to make a speech about Islam in the current climate, perhaps he would have been well-advised to have done something Christian as well, but I genuinely don’t think that it was intended the way people have been interpreting it,” he said.
“I can understand why people are upset in the current climate, but I don’t think that was the intention: to denigrate Christianity.”
‘If the King was going to make a speech about Islam in the current climate, perhaps he would have been well advised to have done something Christian as well.’
Reverend Stephen Kuhrt, says the absence of an Easter message from King Charles is not intentional. pic.twitter.com/F0gB1W70h4
— GB News (@GBNEWS) April 3, 2026
Gavin Ashenden, who served as chaplain to Queen Elizabeth II from 2008 to 2017 before leaving the Church of England for Roman Catholicism, issued a 15-minute video statement rebuking the king for neglecting an Easter message, especially as Christianity evaporates in the U.K. amid what he called “a moment of crisis in our civilization.”
Ashenden, who departed his role as the queen’s chaplain after publicly protesting that St. Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow, marked the Feast of the Epiphany by reciting verses from the Quran denying Christ’s divinity, suggested the exclusive claims of Christianity are not palatable to Charles because they contradict the multicultural relativism that has become his de facto religion.
“It’s Easter, your majesty. Christ is risen,” he said. “Try saying it, perhaps, to your subjects to encourage them; to encourage them to live the faith, to talk the faith, to pray the faith, and to rediscover their own value in the eyes of God. Is that not what a king ought to do at a time like this?”
Ashenden questioned the usefulness of Charles and his royal house if he is unwilling to fulfill his oath to be a defender of the Christian faith.
“I’m afraid it’s true: if you can’t do this, if you cannot find it in your heart on Easter day to wish your Christian country well on a feast of Christ’s resurrection, then maybe you ought to be doing something else in life. Maybe the span of the usefulness of the house of Windsor has come to an end,” he added.
Since formally assuming the throne in 2023, Charles has repeatedly prompted outrage for actions that many have characterized as an affront to the historic English Protestantism that he swore to uphold and defend in his coronation oath.
When he met with Pope Leo XIV and participated in an ecumenical worship service with him in the Sistine Chapel last October, he became the first reigning English monarch to be formally received by a pope since King Canute met with Pope John XIX in 1027. The move led to complaints and calls for his abdication from multiple historic Protestant fraternal groups in the U.K.
Last Christmas, the king stoked backlash for his Christmas message that praised “the great diversity of our communities” while expressing his admiration for “all the great faiths.”
King Charles III is slated to make a state visit to the United States later this month, when he will deliver an address to a joint session of Congress to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence from Great Britain.
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to jon.brown@christianpost.com