Taxpayer-funded school will ban atheists and egg-eaters
A new Hindu school, opening in Harrow, Middlesex next September, will have some of the most stringent religious entry requirements in the country. Parents who want their children to gain a place at the Krishna-Avanti Primary School, which has received government funding of almost 10 million pounds, will have to be practising Hindus (defined as those who pray daily, carry out regular voluntary work and abstain from cigarettes, alcohol, meat, eggs and fish). The borough has a Hindu population of 40,000 – the most concentrated in the country – but only 30 places a year at the school.
Keith Porteous Wood, Executive Director of the National Secular Society, said: “I’m sure the priests are very pleased with this school – what better way to drum their fantasies into the head of vulnerable children? – but the tax-payer should not have to pick up the tab for this exercise in religious proselytising.”
See also: Jewish school discriminating in admissions
30 November 2007
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Guardian, 7 January 2009
Guardian, 7 January 2009
New York Times, 7 January 2009
The economic downturn is being seen by the churches as an opportunity for them to bring people back to religion. Vicars are reporting more bums on pews, priests are telling us that mass attendance is rising.
Islington Council (in north London) has won its appeal today against a ruling that it unlawfully discriminated against a Christian registrar who refused to perform same-sex civil partnerships. The National Secular Society has hailed as “a victory for common sense”