Promote secularism to improve community cohesion, NSS urges

Secular principles should be central to efforts to promote community cohesion, the National Secular Society has told a House of Commons committee.

Responding to a consultation from the Women and Equalities Select Committee, the NSS said the changing demographics of the UK means the country needs a a long-term settlement on the relationship between religion and the state.

The committee's inquiry aims to investigate barriers to cohesion, examples of best practice, and how to ensure cohesion for the next generation.

Recent censuses revealed Christians to be a minority in England and Wales for the first time, and the majority in Scotland to be nonreligious. Members of minority religions including Islam and Hinduism were found to have steadily increased across the UK.

Educating children together "one of the best means available" to promote social cohesion

The NSS said "one of the best means available" to promote social cohesion is to end religious segregation in schools, by educating children from different backgrounds together.

Around a third of English and Welsh schools are faith schools, with Scottish and Northern Irish schools largely divided on sectarian lines.

The NSS said Equality Act exemptions for faith schools should be repealed so no state-funded school is permitted to practise religious selection in its admissions or hiring policies for pupils or staff.

The NSS also called for the abolition of collective worship laws and meaningful protections for the secular, inclusive ethos of nonreligious schools.

The NSS also said religious education should be replaced with a renewed, nationally-determined civics and citizenship subject that provides young people with the knowledge and skills needed to understand, challenge and engage with democratic society, and which promotes social cohesion.

Extremism and free speech

The NSS said efforts to promote cohesion must guarantee the right to free expression due to its essential role in challenging extremism.

It said it was concerned by increasing attempts to categorise offending religious sensibilities as 'hate speech', warning against the adoption of "divisive and contentious" 'religion-phobia' definitions such as 'Islamophobia'.

The NSS said allegations of Islamophobia are already being used to "effectively shield Islam and even extremists from criticism".

The NSS also highlighted the link between accusations of 'Islamophobia' and accusations of 'blasphemy'. In a question concerning Islamophobia Awareness Month in November, Labour MP for Birmingham Hall Green and Moseley Tahir Ali asked the Prime Minister to "commit to introducing measures to prohibit the desecration of all religious texts and the prophets of the Abrahamic religions".

The NSS told the committee that strategies for promoting community cohesion should include a specific emphasis on challenging 'anti-blasphemy' extremism. It also called for the creation of a cross-government 'Cohesion Response Unit' tasked with responding to 'blasphemy flashpoint' incidents such as those at Batley Grammar and Kettlethorpe schools.

The NSS said responses to such incidents typify failings over cohesion, where authorities engage primarily with supposed 'community leaders' and treat religious communities as homogenous.

NSS: Pressing need for secular state that reflects "reality" of population

National Secular Society spokesperson Jack Rivington said: "As the UK becomes increasingly irreligious and religiously diverse, the need for a secular state that reflects the reality of the population is becoming ever more pressing.

"Efforts to promote cohesion should seek to end the religious privilege that is deeply embedded throughout our society which divides and segregates communities, particularly in schools.

"The protection of free expression must also be foundational to all efforts to promote community cohesion. We must reject misguided or malicious efforts to characterise criticism of religion as hatred towards individuals, which will only serve to exacerbate social division."