Every story about religious privilege in the media reminds more people of the undue role religion plays in our public life. This week we've exposed the
enforcement of hijab wearing in UK schools; called for the end of state-backed Church services for judges; and condemned LSE Islamic Society's unlawful gender
segregation.
And as events in Europe have shown, change is possible. Ireland will hold referenda on women's reproductive rights and the right to free speech on religion.
Luxembourg has abolished confessional religious education in schools, and a Belgian federal committee ruled against religious circumcision of infant boys. Please
support us as we continue to campaign for secularism.
The London School of Economics (LSE) has accepted that gender segregation at a dinner held by its Student Union's Islamic Society was unlawful after a...
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A faith school will co-locate with a non-religious school while retaining a faith-based ethos, in what the National Secular Society has termed "a farce"....
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"What example does segregating by faith or privilege set to our children? And what impact does that have on the decisions and policies of our future
leaders?" Lucy Sherriff, Huffington
Post
"We are trying to allow all kids to have fair access to their schools - not promoting one religion over another and kicking the non-Christian kids out of
their classroom and promoting that religion… If you want to have religious freedom, you have to have everyone on an even playing field - not the school endorsing
one religion." Tanya Jacob, representative for the Secular Education Network (New Zealand), Newshub
We were quoted in the Guardian
on our call to end the Judges' Service. We were quoted in the
Independent on our support for students challenging unlawful gender-segregation by the London School of Economics' Islamic Society. Three important
stories broken in the nation media by the NSS, and made possible by our increased research and campaigning capacity. Find out more.
Our executive director Keith Porteous Wood addressed the International
Association of Free Thought Congress in Paris, on the topic of clerical child abuse. Keith was also quoted in the Church Times
regarding our intervention in the case of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, who will now go on trial in France on charges of failing to report known child abuse by a
priest in his archdiocese. Cardinal Barbarin denies any wrongdoing and will appear in court in April, alongside six other priests accused of the same.
Click the link if you'd rather read Newsline as a PDF.
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