Newsline is a weekly round-up of news and opinion from the NSS website. If you're not already a member, becoming one is the most tangible way of supporting our work. Our campaigning is wholly supported by our members, people like you who share our belief that secularism is an essential element in promoting equality between all citizens. Please join today.
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News | Fri, 23 May 2014
The UN Committee Against Torture has criticised the Vatican (in its guise as The Holy See) for several failures in its handling of the child abuse scandal. |
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News | Thu, 22 May 2014
Parents of a child refused a place at a state funded Catholic school have criticised the school over its admissions criteria, and say the school's policy of giving preferential treatment to worshippers has left their lives in turmoil. |
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News | Mon, 19 May 2014
Falkirk Council has announced plans to change admissions policies for all its denominational (Roman Catholic) schools to ensure baptised children are given priority over other children. |
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News | Fri, 23 May 2014
A report published by the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB) has accused the Islamic Education and Research Academy (iERA) of being a "soft Islamist" group, and has called for its charitable status to be withdrawn. |
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News | Tue, 20 May 2014
The Council of the European Union has adopted human rights guidelines on Freedom of Expression Online and Offline. |
NSS Speaks Out
NSS President Terry Sanderson defended a church's right to freedom of expression in the Daily Mail after a Baptist church became the subject of the police investigation for displaying a poster suggesting non-Christians would 'burn in hell'. Terry also discussed the role of religion in schools on BBC 3 Counties after an independent Muslim school in Luton was heavily criticised by Ofsted inspectors for promoting Salafi fundamentalist beliefs. NSS campaigns manager Stephen Evans appeared on the Islam Channel to discuss the influence of religion in schools following allegations that community schools in Birmingham have being taken over in an alleged "Trojan Horse' plot and run on "Islamic principles".
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Quotes of the Week
"Can it really be right that we have to accept a homophobic established church trying to vote down progressive legislation just because that might upset its really homophobic members overseas?"
(Deborah Orr, Guardian) "Gender inequality permeates Islam - we permit it even here in the UK, where gender segregation is pouring out of the mosques and into our university campuses. Some brave Muslim women are embracing feminism in order to defend their rights, but there is no political will to support their quest. Bizarrely, we tolerate their subjection in the name of religious equality."
(Archbishop Cranmer blog)
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