This week has a seen a major report acknowledge the need for a new settlement for religion and belief in public life, and it identified many of the issues stemming from religious privilege. Unfortunately however the report's recommendations amounted to a 'multifaith' approach that would expand many religious privileges, and it failed to address the inequity and separatism fuelled by faith schools.
As brave Muslim reformers launched their campaign for secularism and democracy, a Government minister claimed that secularism was alienating Muslims – despite the fact that the UK, a secularised society, is very far from being a secular state. We continue our work to make the UK's political structures reflect the reality of society, and need your help to support and fund our campaign work.
News, Blogs & Opinion
Woolf Commission’s multifaithism 'completely at odds with the religious indifference that permeates British society'News | Mon, 7th Dec 2015 A major new report on the role of religion and belief in public life has been criticised by the National Secular Society for calling for a multi-faith approach "completely at odds with the religious indifference that permeates British society." The NSS said the Woolf Commission is "wholly misguided" in calling for religious representation in the House of Lords to be extended to representatives of other faiths and denominations rather than calling for the abolition of the bench of bishops. The NSS is also critical of the Commission's recommendations on education, which it accuses of being "tokenistic" and of "not going remotely far enough". The report acknowledges the "negative practical consequences of selection by religion in schools" and states: "selection by religion segregates children not only according to religious heritage but also, frequently and, in effect, by ethnicity and socio-economic background". It notes that many religiously "devout" people "are opposed to religious selection in pupil admissions" and says that "there are many and increasing numbers of parents in England who do not want to send their children to a religious school, but whose only choice of a state school locally is a religious one." In spite of this criticism, the report does not call for an end to faith schools, or even for the statutory elimination of discrimination. The report merely calls on bodies responsible for school admissions to "reduce selection on grounds of religion" in both pupil admissions and employment practices. The Commission does however join the growing chorus of calls for the requirement on schools to provide a daily act of worship to be abolished – a move long called for by the National Secular Society; an amendment to the Education Bill in 2011 tabled by NSS honorary associate Lord Avebury to achieve this was opposed by both Government and Church. The report was convened by the Woolf Institute, which studies relations between Christians, Muslims and Jews. Patrons include the former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Iqbal Sacranie, former general secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain (who once said of Salman Rushdie: "Death, perhaps, is a bit too easy for him .. his mind must be tormented for the rest of his life unless he asks for forgiveness to Almighty Allah"), and Lord Woolf, the former chief justice. Its 'Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life' was chaired by Baroness Butler-Sloss. Commenting on the report, Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, said: "There are some sensible recommendations in the Commission's report, but on the whole it clearly reflects the overbearing influence of vested interests and their reluctance to make recommendations for any fundamental change, however necessary. Disestablishing the Church of England should be a minimum ambition for a modern Britain in the 21st century." "This report seeks to promote a multi-faith approach to public life which is completely at odds with the religious indifference that permeates British society. Efforts to accentuate religion across public life in schools, higher education, in the House of Lords, national state occasions and through taxpayer-funded chaplaincy, all serve to marginalise the religiously indifferent who support the freedom to believe and worship, but would like also to be left free from religious interference in their own day-to-day lives. "What we have at the moment is a secularised country – one of the most secular in outlook in the world – but one still dominated by a disproportionate level of religious influence. This report would see that interference strengthened at all levels of society." "The report is right to highlight the divisive nature of faith schools but fails recognise that religious discrimination and social segregation are an inevitable result of having faith schools in the first place. Instead of faith-based education we need a truly inclusive secular education system in which religious organisations play no formal role – however unpalatable that may be to faith communities seeking to use publicly funded schooling to prop up their religion. The report doesn't even call for the minimum to make any difference: the repeal of equality law exemptions that allow for discrimination on grounds if religion or belief in admissions and employment." Extended religious representation in the House of Lords Perhaps the most controversial and self-serving of the Report's recommendations however is for the House of Lords to "include a wider range of worldviews and religious traditions, and of Christian denominations other than the Church of England." Such a move could see a reduction in the number of bishops and places given to imams, rabbis and other non-other non-Christian clerics as well as evangelical pastors. On that specific recommendation, Mr Wood commented: "We completely reject this recommendation. The United Kingdom is unique among Western democracies in giving religious representatives seats in its legislature by right. The vast majority have abandoned all links between religion and State, with no discernible adverse consequences. "We believe it is now time to remove the automatic right of Church of England Bishops to sit in the House of Lords. It is also vitally important that a reformed Second Chamber should not have any religious-based representation whether ex-officio or appointed, whether of Christian denominations or any other faiths. The presence of religious leaders amounts to double representation of religious interests as many temporal peers already identify themselves as being religiously motivated. "Most Christian leaders are very much more morally conservative than their followers and those of minority faiths significantly more so than the public. A second chamber with a greater input from such voices would make it significantly less representative of the nation as a whole." Protected funding for faith-based chaplaincy The report also calls for state funding of religious chaplaincy to be protected. It says: "Funding for chaplaincies in hospitals, prisons and higher education should be protected with equitable representation for those from non-Christian religious traditions and for those from humanist traditions." Freedom of Information requests recently revealed that religious chaplaincy currently costs the NHS at least £23.5 million every year. Mr Wood commented: "As a publicly provided service, the NHS should neither discriminate in employment nor service provision. NHS posts should no longer be ring-fenced for people of certain beliefs; such blatant discrimination is not acceptable for any publicly-funded post. Any explicitly religion or belief based representation in hospitals should be paid for by the organisations they represent or funded by charitable trusts, just as the air ambulance service is. Pastoral care funded and provided by the NHS itself should be secular in nature, not be organised around religious identities." Increased religious involvement in national civic events The report also calls on those responsible for national and civic events "to ensure that the pluralist character of modern society is reflected". Commenting on this proposal, Mr Wood said: "Our national and civic events, including the Remembrance and the Coronation, would be more inclusive and relevant if they were secular in nature and not led by the religious. We saw in Paris recently that national ceremonies can be conducted on a secular basis and still have dignity and, more importantly, inclusiveness." Religious literacy The report also calls for the introduction of a 'statutory entitlement' for pupils to learn about religions and non-religious worldviews. It also says attempts should be made to "increase religion and belief literacy amongst all journalists and says "every newsroom" should retain "at least one religion and belief specialist". In addition it recommends a 'panel of experts' on religion and belief to handle complaints about the media. The National Secular Society dismissed this as "a dangerous idea". "No-one should be able to dictate to the press how religion is reported. The media should be completely free from this sort of manipulative pressure", said Mr Wood. Other recommendations includes further examination of the issues arising from religious tribunals "with a view to disseminating best practice" and Radio 4's Thought for the Day slot to be extended to include contributions from those who will speak from a non-religious perspective. The NSS said the slot in the Radio 4's Today programme was a "religion-promoting anachronism" that should be dropped. In a recommendation backed by the NSS, it also calls for counter-terrorism legislation to be framed in such a way as to "promote, not limit, freedom of enquiry, speech and expression". The Baroness Butler-Sloss says that the 144-page report's recommendations amount to a "new settlement for religion and belief in the UK". Keith Porteous Wood said: "Britain urgently needs a new settlement but, for the most part, this report doesn't represent a sensible way forward. Instead of a multiculturalist, multifaith framework, which has serves us so poorly until now, we need a secular framework where everyone is equal before the law and where citizens interact with the state as equals, not as members of religious communities through a group identity. In a society as irreligious as ours, where religious belief is declining and simultaneously diversifying, this is a vital principle. It offers our best hope of fostering a fair and open society in which people of all religions or none can live together harmoniously and as equal citizens." Read the full report online: Living with difference: Community, diversity and the common good | |
Muslim Reform Movement embraces secularism and universal human rightsNews | Tue, 8th Dec 2015 A coalition of Muslim writers, activists and politicians has launched a "Muslim Reform Movement" rejecting violence and calling for a defence of secularism, democracy and liberty. The reformers have issued a Declaration defending gender equality, freedom of speech and freedom of religion, stating that they are for "secular governance" and "against political movements in the name of religion." They have called for the separation of "mosque and state" and emphatically reject the "idea of the Islamic state". Activists from the group stuck their Declaration of Reform on to the front door of the Islamic Centre of Washington, a mosque the movement described as "heavily influenced by the government of Saudi Arabia". The preamble to the Declaration states: "We are Muslims who live in the 21st century. We stand for a respectful, merciful and inclusive interpretation of Islam. We are in a battle for the soul of Islam, and an Islamic renewal must defeat the ideology of Islamism, or politicized Islam, which seeks to create Islamic states, as well as an Islamic caliphate. The signatories add that they "support the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by United Nations member states in 1948." Rejecting violence, the preamble goes on: "Facing the threat of terrorism, intolerance, and social injustice in the name of Islam, we have reflected on how we can transform our communities based on three principles: peace, human rights and secular governance. We are announcing today the formation of an international initiative: the Muslim Reform Movement." The founders of the group include Muslims and public figures from Canada, the UK and the United States, including Usama Hasan of the UK-based Quilliam Foundation. The organisers are now calling for support from "fellow Muslims and neighbours". The Declaration says the movement stands for "universal peace, love and compassion" and rejects "violent jihad". "We stand for the protection of all people of all faiths and non-faith who seek freedom from dictatorships, theocracies and Islamist extremists." The Muslim Reform Movement has committed itself to defending freedom of speech: "Every individual has the right to publicly express criticism of Islam. Ideas do not have rights. Human beings have rights. We reject blasphemy laws. They are a cover for the restriction of freedom of speech and religion. We affirm every individual's right to participate equally in ijtihad, or critical thinking, and we seek a revival of ijtihad." Farahnaz Ispahani, a former Pakistani politician and signatory of the Declaration, said: "If Muslim minorities in non-Muslim countries are to be protected, we must demand the protection of non-Muslims within Muslim-majority countries." The Declaration also singles out gender equality and the protection of women's rights, stating: "We support equal rights for women, including equal rights to inheritance, witness, work, mobility, personal law, education, and employment. Men and women have equal rights in mosques, boards, leadership and all spheres of society. We reject sexism and misogyny." | |
New report warns of ‘escalation’ in global persecution against non-believersNews | Thu, 10th Dec 2015 The International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) has warned that worldwide "persecution of the non-religious has escalated" in the past year. The 2015 "Freedom of Thought" report is the fourth annual study produced by IHEU that "records discrimination and persecution against humanists, atheists, and the non-religious, with a country-by-country assessment". It found that "there has been a rise in extrajudicial violence" across the globe targeting secularists, atheists, humanists and critics of religion, and that in several states "harsher judicial sentences have been handed down for crimes such as 'blasphemy' and 'apostasy'." The 2015 report highlights the "string of murders in Bangladesh" targeting secularists and non-believers, who were "hacked to death in machete assassinations. The victims were Avijit Roy, Washqiur Rahman Babu, Ananta Bijoy Das, Niladri Chatterjee, and most recently the publisher Faisal Arefin Dipon." While these targeted murders have been "relatively well-reported", along with the case of Saudi secularist Raif Badawi, the Freedom of Thought report also highlights "less well-known cases, such as Egyptian student Sherif Gaber. In February this year, Gaber was sentenced to a year's hard labour for 'contempt of religion' (he had declared his atheism on Facebook) and for promoting 'debauchery' (he had challenged a lecturer who said that homosexuals should be 'killed in the streets'). Gaber went into hiding following the sentence this year." Among many other examples, the report cites the case of another Egyptian student, Karim al-Banna, who was "arrested at an atheist cafe last November, and was this year handed a three-year jail term for 'insulting religion'." IHEU have drawn attention to other under-reported stories, including the assassinations of three Indian rationalists in recent years, including two murders in 2015, and a spate of death sentences handed-out for apostasy in Saudi Arabia and Mauritania. In one case in the Maldives, the report says that "the administrators of atheist Facebook pages were publicly identified, kidnapped by a 40-strong gang, compelled to 'recant' their atheism and hand over passwords to their accounts. Anti-atheist Facebook pages have forced many secular Maldivians offline throughout 2015." The report notes positive developments in Iceland and Norway, both of which abolished blasphemy legislation in the course of 2015, but it paints a bleak picture of the global situation. IHEU say there is a "real and growing threat to non-religious people throughout the world, with people being imprisoned and murdered for expressing secular beliefs." Bob Churchill, who edited the report and is IHEU's director of communications, said: "The world must recognise that to identify and speak out as non-religious is a basic human right, and the fact there are increasing numbers of people demanding recognition of this right is not a signal of moral decay but of a functioning, free society." The National Secular Society is an affiliate of IHEU, which has recognised status at the United Nations as the umbrella organisation for non-religious, humanist and secularist groups. NSS campaigns manager, Stephen Evans, commented: "The world is seeing continuing struggle between secular democratic values and authoritarianism and theocracy. People of all faiths and none fall victim to those seeking to close down dissent, discussion and debate. This report is vital in setting out the full extent of discrimination and persecution faced by secularists and the non-religious; a topic that has, until now, been sadly neglected." The Freedom of Thought Report 2015 can be downloaded here. | |
Minister’s claim that secularism pushes Muslims towards ISIS is a shameless attempt to advance Christian privilegeOpinion | Wed, 9th Dec 2015 Stephen Crabb MP, the Secretary of State for Wales, has said that secularism and "creeping intolerance" of religion "risks pushing more young Muslims into the arms of Isil". Benjamin Jones responds, debunking his nonsensical claims. In the latest misleading attack on democratic secularism, in a speech to the Conservative Christian Fellowship, the MP and cabinet minister Stephen Crabb claimed that "hard-edged" secularism and "intolerance" of religion risked pushing Muslims into extremism, and even claimed that secularism was partially responsible for "aiding and abetting" religious extremism. Crabb worried aloud to his audience "whether we will ever see again a British Prime Minister who can talk openly about the times when they might pray to God." He added that "the marginalisation of religion in our national life risks pushing more young Muslims into the arms of Isil." In fact the UK is a secularised society but far from being a secular state. There has been a marked, sustained fall away from religion over the past century which is not reflected in our political structures. Crabb's lurid claim that secularism fuels extremism is false not least because state secularism does not exist in the United Kingdom. Religion retains traditional privileges and tremendous elite-level influence disproportionate to its following in wider society. Even if we accepted the malignant premise that we should alter our society by increasing religious influence in public life to appease Islamists, it would simply, obviously not work. There is no accommodation that can or should be reached. How much religion in public life, Mr Crabb, will satiate Islamists on the threshold of embarking on jihad? Crabb claims that "secularism" in the UK fuels extremism; but there is not a secular settlement in Britain, where vast stretches of the education system are run by religious groups, the Government resists the most basic, common-sense reforms to Religious Education and compulsory worship in schools, and a privileged state church sits its clerics in the House of Lords. As for secular "intolerance", the only intolerance fuelling the exodus of c.1500 young British-born Muslims to the Islamic State is religious fundamentalism and the theocratic mind-set; the very antithesis of secularity. ISIS draws recruits globally from societies as stark in contrast as France to Saudi Arabia. ISIS sympathisers don't care how secular or not their host society is, or about the niceties of the constitutional arrangements in Dar al-Harb. The Islamic State recruits fighters from societies as assertively secular as the French republic, to outright theocracies like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. They seek the apocalypse and a reckoning with the armies of Rome; they revile secularism and Christianity in equal measure. If ISIS can recruit from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the United States, France, the UK, is it really credible to say that "secularism" is a common denominator? It would be a laughable assertion were it not made by a Government minister. As for winning over young Muslims and integrating them into society so that they never descend into political Islamism, will more entrenched religion really help? Would these children not be far better served in integrated schools with fellow pupils from a spectrum of backgrounds, rather than in ghettoised faith schools or worse, independent religious schools teaching goodness knows what? We know what Crabb and the Government's prescription is however: more religion, more faith schools, more social segregation. Will Muslims feel more integrated into a stridently "Christian country" or one where all faiths and none are treated equally and where no religion is paramount? The minister added: "The answer to the seduction of Isil is not a greater dose of secularism that delegitimises their faith in the public space." That our increasingly tolerant society is increasingly disinterested in religion may be a cause for concern for Mr Crabb, but he'd be better off dealing with the reality of religion and belief in the UK. Muslims genuinely enmeshed in the ideological struggle against extremism have recently launched their own effort to tackle Islamism, by reforming and secularising Islam. They launched their campaign in a symbolic manner, pinning their declaration of reform to the door of a Saudi-influenced mosque. They have called for "secular governance", gender equality and freedom of speech. Progress, in other words, that we should strain every sinew to encourage. While a handful of Muslim reformers call for what they know to be their co-religionists' only hope, secularism, Crabb rubbishes the concept in defence of a Christian supremacy long-since passed. Crabb reportedly claimed that Britain was an increasingly religious country. By every measure this is simply wrong. The figures for those who say they have "no religion" vary from the 62% found by YouGov in early 2015, to 48% in the British Social Attitudes Survey. The 2011 census finds the figure to be just 1-in-4, but as the recent Commission on Religion and Belief in Public Life write, "as trends, the three types of demographic and cultural change outlined … [the decline of Christianity, the increase in non-Christian religions and the increase of the non-religious] … are robust and of long standing, and show no sign of abating in the near future." The direction of travel is clear, regardless of the exact numbers found by each methodology. Crabb also raised the 'ridicule' faced by Christian politicians – including Tony Blair and Tim Farron – if they spoke about prayer. He said it was "easier for a politician to admit to smoking weed or watching porn, than it is to admit that they might take prayer seriously in their daily life." I seriously doubt that, but perhaps he could consider the comments of his former colleague and ex-Conservative MP James Arbuthnot. Speaking in the House of Commons in January 2015 on a bill (now Act) allowing local authorities to put prayers on their official agenda, Mr Aburthnot said that MPs were "out of touch with the majority of the people we represent, because only a tiny proportion of our constituents go to church" and came out publicly as an atheist. He said he only felt comfortable doing so because he would not be standing in the 2015 general election. "It may be true that the pressure on a Conservative politician in particular to keep quiet about not being religious is very similar to the pressure that there has been about keeping quiet about being gay. "I just want to say that it is telling that it has taken me 28 years in this House—and, frankly, the knowledge that I will not be standing at the next election—to make this point." Perhaps Mr Crabb could consider that, when next speaking about intolerance in politics and society. |
Read Elsewhere
 | Women’s rights groups urge government to hold inquiry into Sharia ‘courts’ and the lack of access to justiceSouthall Black Sisters (SBS), One Law for All, the Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation (IKWRO), the Centre for Secular Space and British Muslims for Secular Democracy have urged David Cameron to hold an inquiry into the discriminatory nature of Sharia 'courts' and other religious arbitration forums. |
NSS Speaks Out
Our response to the Woolf commission report on religion and belief in public life attracted widespread press coverage. NSS executive director Keith Porteous Wood spoke on the BBC World Service and NSS president Terry Sanderson gave seventeen interviews to local BBC radio stations. We spoke about the report on LBC twice, and were quoted in the Telegraph, Independent, BBC, Guardian, Politics Home, Mirror and in several local papers.
We were also quoted in the Independent on sharia 'courts' and in the Evening Standard on an event at Goldsmiths University where students from the Islamic Society disrupted a talk by secular campaigner Maryam Namazie.
Quotes of the Week
"The truth is disestablishment is coming at some point in the future of this country."
Giles Fraser, speaking on BBC Two's Daily Politics.
"Compulsory religious assembly has nothing in common with the rights of conscience, belief and worship … It is an anachronism that disregards the pluralist character of society and institutionalises division at a young age."
Times editorial on collective worship in schools.
Essays of the Week
Why the state must stop funding faith schools.
Colette Douglas Home, Herald Scotland.
The student left's broken moral compass.
Tom Owolade, blog.
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