Newsline 26 June 2015

Newsline 26 June 2015

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News, Blogs & Opinion

Hundreds of students sign petition calling on their school to end Christian religious assemblies

News | Mon, 22nd Jun 2015

In just three days over 300 students at a Scottish High School signed a petition against compulsory Christian assemblies.

The petition says that the assemblies at North Berwick High School are "discriminatory and outdated" and that there should "be no religious influence" in schools, or at least that other faiths besides Christianity should be represented.

Neil Barber of the Edinburgh Secular Society welcomed the petition and said the Society was "heartened to hear that hundreds of pupils at North Berwick High School have signed a petition demanding an end to Christian assemblies in the school.

"They are understandably concerned that these discriminatory assemblies represent only the Christian religion and are led only by Christian church members.

"The days of Christians having exclusive and privileged control over the "spirituality" of pupils in our state schools are clearly numbered," Mr Barber added.

In response to the petition, Reverend Laurence Twaddle, the Belhaven Parish Church minister, said that Christianity had "made Scotland" and the school was therefore justified in its "weighted emphasis" on Christian teaching.

Mr Barber wrote that the cleric had responded arrogantly to the petition and quoted one student who said the assemblies were "out of touch with the views of today's society and young people."

Reverend Twaddle also claimed that Christianity was "the local vibe" and that "educationalists feel it is important it gets particular emphasis in school communities."

The East Lothian Courier reports that, as of 18 June, 334 students had signed the petition.

The nature of the assemblies has been a long-running source of contention. The Contender, a paper produced by young people in the local area, said that all students are "subject to some degree of spiritual influence within the school" and that "many students believe that it is inappropriate to push any belief system within public education."

One student quoted in the newspaper commented, "for a public school to influence children in one way or another towards religion is morally wrong."

Meanwhile, a petition has been launched by an NSS member in Scotland calling on the Scottish Government to change the law that presently requires compulsory collective worship in all Scottish schools. The petition can be signed here.

No plans to review 50% free schools admissions cap, says DfE

News | Wed, 24th Jun 2015

The National Secular Society has welcomed assurances from the Department for Education that it has no plans to permit faith-based free schools to increase the proportion of school places they can allocate on the basis of faith.

The announcement will come as a blow to the Catholic Church in England and Wales which has been lobbying to lift the faith-school admissions cap on new academies.

The Church says the cap prohibits it from opening new academies, although a number of Catholic schools have converted into academies where they can maintain the ability to reserve all places for children of Catholic backgrounds if oversubscribed.

Catholic schools, which make up 10% of the national total of state funded schools, have come under fire for their highly selective admissions policies.

Writing to the NSS, Lord Nash, the minister responsible for faith schools, said the 50% admissions cap "strikes an appropriate balance between enabling those from a faith background to have their children educated in schools with a strong faith ethos whilst also providing additional places to meet basic need".

However, Lord Nash said the Government had no intention to remove Catholic Schools' freedom to admit pupils by reference to faith.

Stephen Evans, NSS campaigns manager, said: "Given that Free Schools are funded by the public purse, their admissions arrangements shouldn't be discriminatory at all. We are however pleased that any pressure to increase the degree of discrimination permitted in our school system is being resisted.

"There is something rather troubling however about the Minster's statement which indicates that the basic need for school places can be met by schools with a 'strong faith ethos'. For the vast majority of parents and pupils a faith based education will be neither appropriate nor acceptable.

"A more efficient use of public money would be to fund only fully inclusive schools that are equally welcoming to children of all religion and belief backgrounds".

Imam joins secularists and Christians in defending Pastor James McConnell’s free speech

News | Wed, 24th Jun 2015

An Islamic scholar has said he is willing to go to prison to defend the free speech of Northern Ireland Pastor James McConnell, who is being prosecuted for comments he made on Islam.

Dr Muhammad Al-Hussaini has penned an article for the Belfast Telegraph in which he strongly criticises the decision to prosecute Pastor James McConnell, after the Pastor described Islam as "Satanic" and "heathen".

McConnell refused to accept a police caution for his sermon, and the case is now going to court. He is charged with sending a "grossly offensive" communication under the 2003 Communications Act.

The National Secular Society has written to the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland urging him to reconsider the decision to prosecute Mr McConnell.

Dr Al-Hussaini called the decision to press ahead with prosecution "extraordinary" and said it was "quite contrary to our country's tradition of freedom of expression."

He said, "It is of utmost concern that, in this country, we uphold the freedom to discuss, debate and critique religious ideas and beliefs - restricting only speech which incites physical violence."

The imam, a Senior Fellow at the Westminster Institute, said the case threatened freedom of religion and belief, and added, "I strongly uphold the moral right of Pastor McConnell and myself, as Christian and Muslim, to disagree about matters of doctrine and belief".

He said it was a matter of "deep dismay" that a "fellow citizen is being subjected to criminal proceedings, when at no time have any of the statements he has made incited to physical harm against anyone."

"If Pastor McConnell is convicted and imprisoned, I shall go to prison with him," Dr Al-Hussaini added.

"Where it pertains to Pastor McConnell's sermons about other Churches and faiths, I hear the hurt caused in the past to some Catholics and now some Muslims.

"But a free and democratic society enters into severe peril when it starts to confound what we perhaps ought or ought not to say, with what in law we are allowed to, or not allowed to say."

Stephen Evans, the National Secular Society's campaigns manager, commented: "We very much welcome Dr Al-Hussaini's robust defence of free expression. The Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland's authoritarian use of a sweeping law to curtail free expression in this way should concern us all.

"By allowing the weapon of 'offence' to be used to silence the likes of Pastor James McConnell, the PPS is trampling over everyone's fundamental right to freedom of expression and we urge it to think again.

"However offended some may feel by criticism of their beliefs, in an open and free society, the law should not be used to insulate them from feeling offended."

Secularists, evangelical Christians, Catholics and Muslims, among others, have all now spoken out to condemn the prosecution and to defend free speech.

The imam also raised the persecution of Christians and others around the world, and praised Christian clergy who had "spoken out tirelessly about the heinous persecution of Christian and other minorities in Muslim states."

See also: "Preacher James McConnell faces prosecution for calling Islam 'Satanic'- the state again tramples over free expression."

Islamic scholar releases extensive theological rebuttal of extremist ideology

News | Tue, 23rd Jun 2015

An Islamic scholar has released an extensive syllabus for use by teachers and children which seeks to rebut extremist Islamist ideology.

At an event in Westminster on 23 June 2015, Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri launched the "Islamic Curriculum on Peace and Counter-Terrorism", a wide-ranging series of books which emphasise peaceful teachings within the Islamic tradition.

It was described as an "ideological answer" to the interpretation of Islam propagated by ISIS.

The books were well received at the event, and several leading imams declared that they would begin using the curriculum in mosques.

Dr Qadri said both Muslim and non-Muslim students should study the work and called for it to be used in schools as well as mosques and madrasahs – a call backed by the former minister for faith Baroness Warsi.

When asked if he feared becoming a target for Islamic State, Dr Qadri insisted he would continue promoting his rebuttal of Islamic State's theology.

An NSS spokesperson who attended the launch event commented: "It is obviously in the interests of those wishing to live in a secular society that a growing religion with a large number of adherents should manifest their religion peacefully.

"While non-believers and non-Muslims will form their own view of Islamic scripture, we do welcome this significant effort by such a large number of Muslims to tackle some of the root ideological problems which cause radicalisation.

"It should never be forgotten – and was stated repeatedly at the launch event- that most victims of Islamist terror are Muslims. It was very pleasing to see such a large number of Muslim leaders denouncing terrorism so comprehensively. Dr Qadri appears to have been personally courageous in publishing such a high profile and extensive rebuttal of Islamic State.

"Our only concern is that, while pushing this counter-narrative is vital, some policy-makers at the event did seem convinced that there is no valid theological underpinning for violent extremism at all, or that terrorism is always a 'perversion' or 'distortion' of Islamic teaching. It was even said at the launch event that no religion justifies violence.

"While we want to see a peaceful narrative triumph within the faith for obvious reasons, it is palpably dishonest to completely separate Islam from Islamic terrorism. Equally, in the long-term, for a counter-narrative to succeed, it must be acknowledged that there is a competing scriptural claim to the one Dr Qadri set out. Genuine reform requires recognition that serious problems exist.

"While it is right to say that most British Muslims completely reject Islamic State, it is worrying to see some senior policy-makers seemingly refuse to accept the role religion can play in violence- and that this often does have some grounding in scripture.

"It does seem that in this, and in other matters, many policy-makers can have an uncritical positive regard for religion and view any religious violence as a distortion or deviation."

Imams and Muslim leaders from many traditions and countries at the event welcomed Dr Qadri's work, which is seen as his most important contribution to the debate around radicalisation and Islamic extremism since he published his 2010 religious ruling against terrorism.

Update 26/06/15: There are allegations that Dr Qadri supported Pakistan's blasphemy law, and the National Secular Society reiterates its comment above, that genuine reform requires recognition that serious problems within Islam exist: such as the severe penalties for blasphemy and apostasy that Dr Qadri is alleged to have once advocated for. Support for a blasphemy law is fundamentally inconsistent with any manifesto against religious extremism.

MPs express support for secularism in Bangladesh

News | Mon, 22nd Jun 2015

Several Members of Parliament have praised secularism in a debate on Bangladesh, and the NSS is calling on them to support secular principles in the UK as well.

Anne Main, a Conservative MP, espoused the virtues of secularism in a debate about the future of Bangladesh, despite voting "very strongly against" equal rights for gay people and "moderately against" equality and human rights legislation in the UK. The MP asked what the UK could do to "help the people of Bangladesh on their path to fulfilling their potential and delivering a future that upholds the ideals of peaceful secularism, prosperity and political engagement?"

She described a "vital struggle for secularism" and said, "we need Bangladesh to hold the line in an uncertain world and stand up for secularism and freedom of speech."

Main said that Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was "warmly welcomed" at a recent event for "reaffirming her Government's commitment to upholding secularism". Main added that critics of international aid would be 'satisfied' if they knew the money was going to "support a country that is independent, secular and a bulwark against the fundamentalist Islamism."

Conservative MP Mark Field mentioned the "importance of maintaining [a] secular society" in Bangladesh.

Several Labour MPs too were strongly supportive of secularism in Bangladesh. Jim Fitzpatrick, an honorary associate of the NSS, referred to Bangladesh's "proud secular history" while Chris Matheson said he was 'strongly supportive' of efforts to "introduce a civil society based on secularism".

Kerry McCarthy MP, another NSS honorary associate, spoke out on "grave concerns" about freedom of religion and speech. "The Government must protect the rights of religious minorities and atheists in Bangladesh, as well as the majority Muslim population," she said.

She also raised issues around abuse within arranged marriages as well as child marriage.

Hugo Swire, Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, said "I associate myself closely with the comments of my right hon. Friend [Mark Field] about the importance of a secular society."

The Minister added: "The recent horrifying and brutal murders of three bloggers in Bangladesh caused consternation around the world. The perpetrators must be brought to justice and the Bangladeshi Government must be unequivocal in protecting those who speak up."

An NSS spokesperson commented: "We are very pleased to see the Government seriously considering the violence targeted at non-believers around the world. We are also pleasantly surprised to see such a strong and explicit endorsement of the benefits of secularist principles from a Government Minister.

"As the struggle against Islamism which the Minister referred to is a global challenge, as the Prime Minister called it, we hope to see the secularist principles that Anne Main MP described as a 'bulwark' against religious extremism, and which the Minister endorsed, applied in the UK as well.

"While there are debates about what model of secularism is best, and how assertive it should be, it is gratifying to see secularist principles being defended so widely and with cross-party support."

The full debate can be read here.

International groups highlight global persecution of non-religious and religious minorities

News | Thu, 25th Jun 2015

Secular human rights organisations have called on the United Nations Human Rights Council to promote "genuine respect for freedom of religion and belief and freedom of expression".

At the 29th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, Roy Brown, representing the Centre for Inquiry, called for action to combat persecution, oppression and discrimination against non-believers.

Mr Brown drew specific attention to murder of bloggers in Bangladesh, the arrest and lashing of Raif Badawi and others in Saudi Arabia and the imprisonment of freethinkers in Egypt.

Mr Brown challenged Saudi Arabia, which has a seat on the Human Rights Council, over its "fear of atheism and freethought".

"Saudi Arabia has equated atheism with terrorism, but it isn't atheist jihadis who are terrorising the world", he said.

Mr Brown told the Council: "atheists and freethinkers do not advocate state atheism but government that is neutral towards religion and belief, favouring none and discriminating against none."

In a separate intervention, Kacem El Ghazzali of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), accused the Egyptian state of being party to "a war on atheism".

He called on the UNHRC to "condemn the use of hate speech and incitement against any religious or belief minority" and urged Egypt to implement the Rabat Plan of Action – which seeks to prevent incitement to discrimination, hostility and violence whilst protecting free speech.

In another IHEU intervention, Elizabeth O'Casey called on the UN to do more to protect the rights of LGBT people and challenge laws restricting their free expression.

Meanwhile, a new report into the imprisonment of people for their religion or belief was launched in the House of Lords this week at meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Freedom of Religion and Belief, attended by the National Secular Society.

The report – "In Prison for their religion or beliefs" – was published by Human Rights Without Frontiers International (HRWF) and details country by country a list prisoners who have been incarcerated for manifesting their beliefs or falling foul of so-called anti-blasphemy laws.

The report is available here.

Ireland strongly criticised by UN for domination of religious schools over education system

News | Tue, 23rd Jun 2015

The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) has called on Ireland to "increase the number of non-denominational schools" in its education system.

CESCR has urged Ireland to "review admissions policies of all schools with a view to removing all discriminatory criteria for enrolment and establish a regulatory mechanism to monitor school policies, including admissions policies".

The highly critical report recommended that Ireland "step up its efforts" to make education "inclusive".

Responding to the latest critical UN report, Atheist Ireland, which promotes "atheism, reason and an ethical, secular state", commented: "Both major UN Human Rights Committees have now condemned Ireland's lack of separation of church and state in education and other laws. Last year it was the Committee on Civil and Political Rights, and this year it is the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights."

"Atheist Ireland has now succeeded in getting four UN Committees to call for secular education in Ireland. These are the Committees on Civil and Political Rights, ESC Rights, the Rights of the Child, and Racial Discrimination."

In April 2015, Educate Together, an NGO which runs inclusive, multi-denominational schools in Ireland, said that control of education by religious bodies had reached "shocking" levels. 97% of the Irish primary school system is run by religious denominations.

"There are still large areas of the country where parents have no alternative but to send their children to denominational schools", their CEO Paul Rowe said.

National Secular Society campaigns manager Stephen Evans commented: "Ireland has extraordinary levels of religious control over primary education in particular. Religious influence or control of state education should be a thing of the past, not a prospect for the future. Clearly the educational offering in Ireland needs to change – and likewise in the UK, where faith-based, taxpayer funded education is equally inappropriate and undesirable.

The CESCR report was also scathing about Ireland's "highly restrictive legislation on abortion" and the "strict interpretation" of the legislation. The committee were "particularly concerned at the criminalization of abortion, including in the cases of rape and incest and of risk to the health of a pregnant woman."

CESCR called on the Irish Government to hold a referendum on abortion and to "revise its legislation."

Academics call for greater sensitivity about religion in universities, but students suggest it’s not an issue

Opinion | Fri, 19th Jun 2015

Some academics are giving undue prominence to religion and religious students- when the evidence shows they are exaggerating the scale of the 'problem' they describe.

Tariq Modood, professor of sociology at the University of Bristol, and Professor Craig Calhoun, Director of the London School of Economics, have described religion as a 'public good' and called the secular principle that religion be separate from the public sphere as "repressive" towards religion.

Two papers, one by each of the academics, published by the Leadership Forum, came after an event at the LSE which saw several academics disparage secular attitudes towards higher education. There was little understanding that there is a relationship between religion rising in the public agenda- and in the news- and with society's non-religious outlook.

There were also calls at the event for greater 'religious literacy', the importance of which is often overstated by religion enthusiasts in an attempt to elevate the status of religion in the face of widespread indifference.

In the papers, Calhoun writes "there are more actively engaged Anglican students even at avowedly secular institutions such as the LSE than their professors may realise."

There is a distinct sense that some of these academics have a pro-religious agenda, this comes through in their papers' use of language like "militant atheist".

Tariq Modood, who serves as part of a steering group for the self-appointed 'Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life' has been a long-time critic of what he describes as "radical secularism", and argues for an accommodative model that "respects religion yet goes beyond both toleration and even civic recognition".

You can also see a worrying undercurrent in lines like this one: "when in early 1989 during The Satanic Verses controversy, Muslims were as friendless as any minority has ever been, the Bishop of Bradford played an important role in getting his city to understand the pain and anger some Muslims felt." This seems to give the impression that the manifestation of these grievances was legitimate.

But research from 2011, titled Religion and Belief in Higher Education, available from British Religion In Numbers (BRIN), found that the professors are perhaps exaggerating the problem. Rather than an intolerant or anti-religious space, students seem overwhelmingly happy with how religion is treated in their academic institutions.

48% said religion was not relevant to the content of their degree course, with 47% responding that religion was "irrelevant" to how their course was taught. 22% said course content was sensitive to their religion, just 10% disagreed.

As for facilities, which Modood and Calhoun raise as a particular issue, with reference to prayer spaces, 44% of students said that their university provided "adequate" facilities for members of their faith, and only 15% said they were not satisfactory.

Although religious students are in the majority, just 27% of students were members of a society based around religious beliefs. While reasonable accommodations must be made, as in the workplace, universities must not defer inappropriately to religion.

As for Calhoun's claim that atheists are "militant" on campuses, 94% of students said they had not faced discrimination or harassment on the grounds of their religion and 90% felt "comfortable expressing their religion or beliefs." The vast majority, 54%, had "never been approached by anyone with the intention of bringing them over to their religious point of view", according to BRIN. "Militant atheist" is a nonsense in any case, but it is clear that the evidence does not support their view.

Again predictably, while the writers complain about militant atheists, we hear nothing about demeaning attacks on gay people or gay rights from minority religious speakers, something that has been a feature of university life for at least 25 years.

Academic institutions must balance secularism with the needs of religious students; but the overwhelming problem we are seeing from universities today is not a lack of accommodation for religious beliefs, but over-accommodating them. Recent cases at Bath and the LSE support this worrying trend, particularly where institutional attitudes towards blasphemy are concerned. The only aggression in the case cited at the LSE was against the atheist students wishing passively to express freedom of expression, and that aggression by the student union was backed despite strenuous complaints to LSE officials until the most formal approach to Prof. Calhoun.

Some of their comments and tone betray a pro-religious bias, and certainly they make some mistaken assumptions about secularism. Calhoun writes, "Modood rightly stresses that religion is a public and not only a private good. Attempts to exclude it from the public sphere are intrinsically repressive to it; toleration of private belief is not a substitute. One might think this would be clear in Britain with its long history of Catholic exclusion, but many persist in thinking that exclusion of religion from the public sphere is a necessary dimension of secularism."

Secularism excludes religious doctrine from public life and removes religious privileges, but, in stark contrast with historic persecution of Catholics, it clearly does not exclude religious people from public life. The comparison he uses is intrinsically flawed.

Unfortunately, this comes across as the latest spurious comparison between secularism and repression of religion; it is in essence a call for untrammelled increase in religious privilege on campus, at the expense of secular values, including freedom of expression.

Also see: Academic claims university atheists are "militant"