Published: Monday, 23rd March, 2009 12:25pm

I found Jesus on church wall

by Eric Baxter

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A MUSLIM barber discovered "the face of Jesus" on a wall next to a Greenock church.

Karim Babaa was sitting relaxing on a bench when he spotted the holy image right in front of him.

The image - visible in the moss on the stone wall near the Westburn Church - appears to have a beard and a crown of thorns.

The 24-year-old, from Tunisia, declared: 'I couldn"t believe it. This is something natural on the wall. Nobody has made it.

'This really looks like the face of Jesus. I"m a Muslim but I read lots of books and that is Jesus.'

The "face" is on the garden wall of tenements which lie in the shadow of the church.

Karim works at The Cutting Room in Nicolson Street on the other side of the road from the wall.

He said: 'My boss Alan Stocks and I sometimes come over to the garden to have a seat at lunchtime. We were just sitting there and I saw it.'

Alan, 40, added: 'We often sit there during breaks between customers, but we had never noticed it before. It"s strange it should happen just before Easter. It"s as if it just happened at this time of year.'

Alan said his wife, Sharon, 38, took a picture of the image and everyone he has shown it to has been "stunned".

Westburn"s Minister, the Rev Douglas Hamilton, said: 'I"ve seen the image and, if it amuses people, then that"s fair enough. It all comes down to imagination.'

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