Newsline 27 November 2015

Newsline 27 November 2015

This week has seen a contrived controversy over the decision of cinema chains to not show an advert of the Lord's Prayer before the new Star Wars film – and the NSS has been vocal in defending the cinemas' right to refuse political or religious advertisements. While something of a lone voice at the start of the week, we have been joined by religious and non-religious commentators in questioning the Church's actions – particularly their claims that by declining an advert cinemas have threatened free speech, and the suggestion that they may pursue a case under the Equality Act, legislation from which the Church has its own exemptions.

If you value the work the NSS does speaking out on issues like this, please consider joining the Society today. We are a membership-led organisation, and this Saturday existing members are invited to attend our AGM – details of which were sent out in our recent Annual Report.

News, Blogs & Opinion

So called Lord’s Prayer ‘Ban’: It’s Winterval all over again

Opinion | Mon, 23rd Nov 2015

The controversy over cinemas rejecting religious advertising appears to be another attempt to reignite the Christian victimisation narrative, argues Stephen Evans

Praising the Church of England isn't something I often find myself doing, but you've got to take your hat off to them this time.

In a slick, albeit disingenuous, piece of marketing it has manufactured a bogus 'victimisation' narrative based around a supposed 'ban' on the Lord's Prayer – and in doing so has manipulated virtually every media outlet in the country into broadcasting its Lord's Prayer advert – all without paying a penny!

Naturally the BBC led the charge by timing its reporting of the so called 'ban' to coincide with the launch of the Church of England's new website encouraging people to start a relationship with God. Thought the BBC didn't do advertising? Think again.

But despite claims to the contrary, the Lord's Prayer hasn't been banned and nobody has deemed the Church's commercial to be "offensive". Dull perhaps, but not offensive.

The more prosaic truth is that the Digital Cinema Media (DCM) agency, which handles British film advertising for the major cinema chains, turned down the Church of England's advert because it falls foul of its policy of not accepting 'political or religious advertising' content for use in its cinemas.

The Church of England may be expressing faux outrage and "bafflement" in attempt to curry favour with the public, but DCM's policy is actually very clear.

It states:

"To be approved, an advertisement must not in the reasonable opinion of DCM constitute political or religious advertising"

It goes on:

"Political or religious advertising means advertising which wholly or partly advertises any religion, faith or equivalent systems of belief (including any absence of belief) or any part of any religion, faith or such equivalent systems of belief."

The Church's prayer commercial didn't stand a chance.

DCM didn't ban the Lord's Prayer explicitly, nor did it specifically target the Church of England. The same policy would prevent Muslim groups from placing an advert featuring Islamic call to prayer or extolling the virtues of a caliphate; an atheist group from using cinemas to refute the existence of God; and the Church of Scientology from recruiting new Scientologists.

The reason for the policy is also clear. Religion, like politics, has the potential to be divisive and cinema chains don't want to run the risk of alienating their paying customers with unwanted religious or political messaging. In today's secular society people rarely go to church to be preached at, so it's reasonable to assume they don't go to the cinema to be preached at either.

One wonders whether the likes of Prime Minister David Cameron and Boris Johnson, who have both jumped on the bandwagon calling for DCM's decision to be reversed, would be equally as enthusiastic in insisting that an Islamic call to prayer should also be screened – or are they simply arguing for a privileged position for Anglican adverts? I suspect so.

Ultimately, this is a commercial decision – and one that a business should be free to make. The even-handedness of the policy should have prevented DCM from becoming embroiled in political or religious debate or being accused of bias, but unfortunately, the Church's dissembling saw that that wasn't so.

Now we have the undignified spectacle of the established Church threatening to sue in a bid to force its prayer commercial onto the big screens.

But given that DCM's policy treats all religion and beliefs equally, all this talk about using the Equality Act to force itself onto the same bill as Star Wars is surely nothing more than lightsaber-rattling from the Church.

Perhaps the most shameful aspect of their media campaign has been to invoke freedom of expression concerns in order to bully itself onto cinema screens. Freedom of speech doesn't mean you get to demand whatever platform you wish to broadcast yourself. As political commentator Ian Dunt said at Politics.Co.Uk:

"The establishment church is not some silenced minority. It has plenty of ways to get its message out, including through its state-protected schools, its state-protected peers in the Lords, its state-protected position during moments of public ceremony, or even Thought for the Day. Religion is still given a pride of place in society which is completely at odds with the level of support it enjoys."

Blasting the so called 'Lord's Prayer ban' on social media, the bishop of Guildford, Andrew Watson, proclaimed "It's Winterval all over again" – and he's right – but not in the way thinks he is.

The Winterval myth dates back to the late 1990s when Birmingham City was accused of 'banning Christmas' and trying to rebrand it 'Winterval'. As the bishop's comment demonstrates, the urban myth still endures to this day – despite the Daily Mail being forced into admitting it was a load of rubbish. But persecution has an allure for many Christians and some never seem happier as when they're claiming victimhood status.

That's why claims that the Lord's Prayer has been banned for causing "offence" have been so effective at rejuvenating the flock. With Anglicans and cultural Christians up and down the country voicing their condemnation of cinema chains, the Archbishop Cranmer blog rejoiced: "What a marvellously spiffing day this is for the Church of England, Justin Welby, Jesus and the Lord's Prayer".

With the help of the media the Church certainly appears to have been successful in carving out a modern myth to rival Winterval and craftily getting it message out to the masses.

Whether or not the masses will be receptive to the message is another matter altogether.

High Court rules against Education Secretary for leaving non-religious views out of new RE GCSE

News | Wed, 25th Nov 2015

The High Court has ruled in favour of three families who challenged the Education Secretary's exclusion of non-religious worldviews from the new RE GCSE syllabus.

The families, supported by the British Humanist Association, successfully took their case to the High Court and accused the Government of taking a "skewed" approach to religious education, with one parent objecting to "the lack of parity between religious beliefs and non-religious worldviews in the school curriculum, which in the eyes of children may well lead to the belief that religion, in whatever form, has a monopoly on truth and on morality."

The National Secular Society has repeatedly called for fundamental reform of the subject, including the inclusion of non-religious perspectives.

When the new GCSE RE curriculum was announced the NSS challenged the Government in a consultation response over the lack of "systematic study of secular ethics or non-religious worldviews" in the proposals.

The case mounted by the three families was pursued under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), and the High Court ruled that Secretary of State for Education, Nicky Morgan, had made an "error of law" by leaving non-religious views out of the GCSE syllabus.

Mr Justice Warby ruled that there had been a "breach of the duty to take care that information or knowledge included in the curriculum is conveyed in a pluralistic manner".

But crucially the judge ruled that "is not of itself unlawful to permit an RS GCSE to be created which is wholly devoted to the study of religion". The ruling added that the assertion that this fulfilled "the entirety of the state's RE duties" was however in breach of the requirement for pluralistic teaching of RE.

The judge concluded that if the GCSE syllabus fell short of meeting the Government's obligation to impartiality then "the state would need to afford some additional educational provision or fail in its duties".

NSS campaigns manager Stephen Evans commented: "The recognition this ruling gives to the non-religious worldviews held by a great number of people in the UK is welcome. For too long the exploration of ethics and fundamental life questions have been undertaken in an almost exclusively religious context, which sidelines a host of other philosophical approaches. We hope this ruling changes that.

"We urged the Government to include the systematic study of non-religious thought and beliefs in the new GCSE syllabus and they declined to do so. The High Court has issued a ruling that the Government was wrong to neglect non-religious beliefs, though it leaves open how the DfE can rectify this."

Mr Evans said the ruling provided another opportunity for the Government rethink its whole approach to the teaching of religion and belief in schools.

"The school curriculum should not be used as an opportunity for special interest groups to propagate their faith and beliefs. It should offer a comprehensive and impartial study of human ideas and philosophy from a broad spectrum of stances – religious and non-religious alike in a new, reformed subject for all pupils."

David Wolfe QC, speaking for the three families who pursued the case, told the hearing that Nicky Morgan had failed to comply with "her duty of neutrality and impartiality as between religious and other beliefs".

According to the Telegraph, lawyers for the DfE had argued that "although some schools rely on the RS GCSE to discharge their duty to provide religious education at key stage 4 for 14 to 16-year-olds, provision has been made for non-religious beliefs to be studied and what is in a school's curriculum is a matter 'for local determination' by individual school authorities."

In response to the judgement the Department for Education said the ruling will not "affect the current teaching of the RS GCSE in classrooms".

A DfE spokesperson said: "Today's judgement does not challenge the content or structure of that new GCSE and the judge has been clear it is in no way unlawful."

Read the High Court ruling in full

Read the DfE's response to the ruling

Read the BHA's response to DfE statement

Call to overhaul RE teaching and rename the subject

News | Fri, 27th Nov 2015

A review into Religious Education has called for fundamental reform of the subject, so that teaching reflects "the real religious landscape" of the UK – with content including a "broad range" of religious and non-religious views.

RE for Real, a report produced by the Religious Literacy Programme at Goldsmiths, University of London, has said there is a "policy muddle" around RE teaching and warned that "changes in the real religious landscape have far outpaced changes in education".

Academics have described the current approach to Religious Education as a "mid-20th century settlement for an early 21st century reality" that fails to acknowledge the nature of religion and belief in the modern United Kingdom.

Professor Adam Dinham, co-author of the report, said "We think non-believers and those with informal beliefs need to be treated more seriously as a growing part of the picture."

The report makes a raft of recommendations to overhaul what they say is the "piecemeal" amendment of policies dating back from 1944, with suggested changes to teaching, as well as a recommendation to rename the subject and include much broader content – including many more religious traditions and non-religious worldviews.

There is an "urgent need" to review the role of Standing Advisory Councils on Religious Education (SACREs) and for the appointment of "a national panel to develop the framework" of RE teaching, the report argues.

The academics raised concerns about the fact that Free Schools and academies are "not required to follow locally agreed syllabuses" resulting in a "diversity of approaches" to content and teaching, and the writers ask if RE is "up to the challenge" of meeting these significant "structural changes".

The National Framework which the report proposes should consider the purpose, content and structures of RE teaching and learning, and should also review the subject name of teaching about religion and belief. The Welsh government recently announced plants to rebrand RE as "religion, philosophy and ethics" as part of a package of reforms warmly welcomed by the National Secular Society.

The report is the result of interviews with 331 students, teachers, parents and employers and it found from the responses that many students are "uncomfortable" calling the subject RE.

Employers, teachers and students all stressed the importance of knowledge about "lived" religion to engage with a diverse society and with people from a multitude of religious and non-religious beliefs.

Ten employers interviewed for the study, which were "chosen to represent a range of public and private settings in a variety of sectors", said that RE should "give young people an understanding of what are acceptable manifestations of religion and belief within the work place and what are not."

"GCSE Religious Studies should remain as an optional subject," the report recommends, but there should a clear boundary "between academic study of the real religious landscape, and other religion and belief learning associated with SMSC (spiritual, moral, social and cultural development) outside of the GCSE."

NSS campaigns manager Stephen Evans commented: "Comprehensive reform of religious education is long overdue and we're pleased to see this report recognising that. We look forward to contributing to the ongoing debate over the way in which religion and belief is approached in schools and ensuring that any reforms reflect the needs of young people and society, rather than the priorities of religious leaders.

"In today's pluralistic society there is a need to move away from the concept of religious education entirely and recognise that the in-depth teaching of specific faiths is a parental responsibility, for those that want it, and not the role of state education.

"Young people would be much better served by religious education being replaced with a new and inclusive subject for all pupils covering the fascinating history of human ideas encompassing religious, non-religious and secular worldviews."

Female governor made to sit “out of sight” of men during school governors’ meetings at Islamic school

News | Tue, 24th Nov 2015

Ofsted has released a damning advice note on the Bridge Schools Inspectorate, revealing shocking failures by independent Muslim and Christian schools.

Sir Michael Wilshaw, the Chief Inspector of Schools, has told Education Secretary Nicky Morgan that hundreds of children are being exposed to extremist teaching or suffering inadequate education in independent religious schools recently re-inspected by Ofsted, with sexist books stocked in school libraries, narrow curriculums which focus on Islamic studies and appalling treatment of female governors at one Muslim school.

After the recent closure of the Bridge Schools Inspectorate, a body tasked with inspecting Muslims and Christian independent schools, Ofsted became responsible for inspecting all schools previously under the purview of the BSI, and carried out inspections of "all 17 schools that the BSI had not inspected since September 2012" and carried out inspections of a further five schools that the BSI had recently reviewed.

The National Secular Society has repeatedly raised concerns over the Bridge Schools Inspectorate, most recently in 2014. In 2010 the NSS called on then education secretary Michael Gove to "close the Bridge Schools Inspectorate and bring its work back under Ofsted". The Government responded saying it would "strengthen the regulatory framework to ensure extremists cannot operate in schools".

In a new advice note to the Secretary of State for Education dated Sir Michael notes the concerns he had raised in 2014 about "the quality of BSI inspection and reporting" before listing a catalogue of failures at faith schools which the BSI had been responsible for.

Of the 22 schools Ofsted inspected, of which seven are Christian and fifteen are Muslim, Ofsted found just five to be good or outstanding, with eight requiring improvement, and it rated nine as "inadequate".

Sir Michael said that "Of the 22 schools inspected, 14 failed to meet at least one of the independent school standards and 11 did not meet the standards in four or more areas".

Most worryingly, "four failed to demonstrate that they promote fundamental British values", "eight failed to meet the standard for safeguarding" and eight schools did not even meet the health and safety standards.

At Al-Ameen Primary School, "older pupils did not know the term 'government' or understand its role in a democracy. Very few could name any political parties." Sir Michael told the Secretary of State that "pupils had little understanding of British institutions or the democratic process".

The Ofsted report also found that teachers at Al-Ameen "were not protecting pupils from reading inappropriate literature about extremist, sexist or partisan views" and that "inappropriate books" were found in the school library, including one text that asserted that "women are less reliable than men as witnesses."

Furthermore the primary school was "not ensuring that the school fulfils its responsibilities set out in the Prevent duty."

During one inspection, of the Darul Uloom Islamic High School, "the only female governor sat out of sight of the male governors in an adjacent room to the main meeting. As a result, she could only contribute to the meeting through a doorway. Governors told inspectors this was their usual arrangement." Respect for women will now be a "primary focus" of "subsequent monitoring" of the school by Ofsted.

At one school inspectors found that while "much time" was given to Islamic studies, there was little teaching of creative subjects.

The Cornerstone School, an independent Christian school which aspires for all pupils to "discover that they are indeed citizens of that heavenly Jerusalem", also came under fire. The 2011 BSI inspection praised the school because its pupils "are developing a deep, Bible-based faith" but Ofsted rebuked the school after it found that pupils did not have the opportunity to study music, art, drama or technology.

Inspectors also warned that at some schools staff "could not be sure that pupils who leave to be educated elsewhere were not being exposed to harm, exploitation or the influence of extremist ideologies" because "inadequate systems" were in place for pupils who leave some schools – meaning pupils could "go missing" from the education system.

Sir Michael warned the Department for Education that "more than 2,000 pupils are being educated in 17 schools where the education was judged not to be good enough."

He added, "Seven hundred children attend schools where inspectors considered that pupils were not being adequately prepared for life in modern Britain."

NSS campaigns manager Stephen Evans commented: "The situation in these schools vindicates the concerns that we have been raising with the Department for Education for many years about the BSI and the ability of religious groups involved in education to effectively inspect themselves.

"The closing down of BSI is a positive development and we're pleased to see the schools it was responsible for now receiving independent and objective inspections, albeit with alarming findings.

"For too long children and young people have been left to languish in abysmal conditions where their right to education is denied and in some cases – as Ofsted shows – they are exposed to extremism.

"Religious schools are a rapidly growing sector of independent education and without robust inspections there is a real danger that the proliferation of such schools will impede children's independent rights, harm future community cohesion, and increase the potential for radicalisation of young people.

"On the broader point of self-inspection, this also highlights the need to reconsider the current system of allowing state-funded faith schools to teach their own religious education and self-inspect the quality of their RE. The content and quality of religious education in faith schools should be independently inspected by Ofsted."

NSS stresses role of education in nurturing cohesive societies in speech at European Parliament

News | Tue, 24th Nov 2015

The NSS has told top-level European officials of the positive role secular education can play in building a shared future and challenging religious intolerance across Europe.

In a keynote address at the European Parliament, given at the invitation of Vice President Antonio Tajani MEP, the National Secular Society warned that the UK's "highly segregated" education system – and faith schools in particular – undermine social cohesion and fuel religious separatism.

The wide-ranging speech, given by the executive director of the NSS, Keith Porteous Wood, raised concerns about the "missed opportunities" to use the education system to break down barriers in society and reduce the tensions and isolationism that can feed both Islamist radicalism and other forms extremism, including anti-Muslim bigotry.

Noting the serious challenges faced across Europe, Mr Wood discussed how "conservatism has grown in recent decades among some Muslim groups" and how "Saudi-funded" Wahhabism was reinforcing a "trend of greater conservatism" in many British Muslim communities. This was fuelling significant challenges for intergenerational and intercultural relations, which an inclusive education system could help young people to navigate, he said.

In his speech he noted evidence that suggested younger Muslims were more socially conservative in their attitudes and less liberal than older generations, warning that without positive efforts to integrate young Muslims into society through shared education, many would grow up in isolation from wider society and "identify themselves primarily with their religion" rather than their wider community.

Continuing, he said, "My comments about religious conservatism and separatism do not just apply to Islam. There is increasing pressure in the UK for more minority faith schools, with orthodox Jewish, Sikh and Hindu schools now all being funded by the state.

"Some minority faith or denomination schools in the UK teach narrow curriculums and promote religious dogma over key scientific principles that clash with their worldview. Teaching about evolution theory, sex education and even human biology is restricted in some UK schools on religious grounds. This is an affront to children's independent rights, which even in older children seem to be given too little weight relative to those of their parents."

"Many parents of minority faiths are however convinced that a more integrated education is likely to better-equip their child for the future, so choose a mainstream school. More thought needs to be given to [encouraging] a higher proportion of parents to make such a choice."

Mr Wood has spoken in recent months on related topics at the European Commission at the invitation of First Vice-President Frans Timmermans, and at the Commission's first Annual Colloquium on Fundamental Rights on human rights-based approaches to fighting anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim hatred in Europe, to foster tolerance and respect in European societies. Speaking after the event, he commented, "With the latest atrocities in Paris this debate could not have been more relevant."

Shortly before the address at the European Parliament, Mr Wood spoke at the European Network on Religion and Belief's conference on "Manifesting Religion or Belief". He spoke of the importance of the UK's world-leading equality and human rights laws, and the attempt to undermine equality law in many European countries through ill-defined calls for greater exemptions and accommodations for religious beliefs.

Mr Wood stressed that secularism does not "deny anyone their right to manifest their religion within the law", but protects this freedom by "seeking to establish a level playing field" where nobody is "advantaged nor disadvantaged" because of their belief, or lack of it.

He warned that, while the NSS strongly upholds the universality of human rights, those values are clearly not universally held. "It could be argued that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is no longer Universal, having been under attack by those – again from a religious standpoint – who increasingly dismiss it as a 'Western' construct. The Organisation for Islamic Co-operation has a long standing rival, the Cairo Declaration, in essence making the Universal Declaration subject to Sharia," he added.

Mr Wood argued for the need to recognise the alarming extent to which some religiously-motivated vested-interests seek to undermine equality law and human rights, citing the lack of protection from caste-based discrimination in the UK as just one example of this.

Links to speeches:

Manifesting religion or belief: A human rights perspective.

Interreligious dialogue: How can education contribute to tackle radicalism and fundamentalism in Europe?

NSS Speaks Out

The National Secular Society has been widely quoted by international, national and local media over the 'Just Pray' controversy, including by the New York Times and CNN. We gave over thirty radio interviews on the topic to BBC radio stations and Talk2MeRadio, and our executive director Keith Porteous Wood also appeared on BBC's Sunday Morning Live, while campaigns manager Stephen Evans discussed the advert on ITV's This Morning. The NSS also featured on BBC News and Channel 5 news. We were quoted by the Telegraph, Daily Mail, Mirror and Pink News in addition to a range of local newspapers.