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This has been a mixed week for free speech on religious issues.
The people of Ireland voted to remove blasphemy provisions from their country's constitution. This decision should encourage governments to take a firmer stand to
protect free thinkers around the world. And we're relieved to report that Pakistan's Supreme Court has overturned the blasphemy conviction of Asia Bibi, whose case
we recently raised with
the Foreign Office.
But as last week drew to a close there was less encouraging news from the European Court of Human Rights. The court ruled that Austria was not wrong to convict a
woman for criticising the Islamic prophet Muhammad. As our CEO Stephen Evans argues below, the court's judgement sets a dangerous precedent and should be
reconsidered.
The NSS has defended free speech since our founding in 1866, and we'll continue to do
so at home and abroad. Free speech is the ultimate value of a secular society and the first right that any citizen should enjoy. If you value it, please consider
supporting our work. Thank you.
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News & Opinion
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Just as Irish citizens strike a blow for the right to freedom of expression, the European Court has fundamentally undermined it, argues Stephen Evans....
Read More »
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Pakistan's Supreme Court has ordered the freeing of Asia Bibi, who awaited a death sentence for blasphemy for eight years and had recently submitted her...
Read More
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The National Secular Society has welcomed Irish voters' decision to repeal the blasphemy provisions in their country's constitution and called for
international... Read
More »
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Speakers have called for individual rights and bodily autonomy to take priority over religious concerns in healthcare policy at a major National Secular...
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The government has rejected calls to make Hindu and Muslim religious festivals public holidays after the National Secular Society lobbied against the
idea.... Read More »
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Saudi Arabia has been named the worst country in the world to be an atheist in a new report monitoring the rights and treatment of the non-religious.
On... Read More
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Britons convincingly support several important secularist principles but a significant minority of them have attitudes unwelcoming of religious
minorities,... Read More »
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Latest from the No More Faith Schools campaign
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Teachers have an obligation to broaden children's minds, says Robert Bradley. While secular education introduces children to different ways of thinking,
faith schools reinforce ignorance.
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Sex education consultation closing: please respond
A government consultation on relationships and sex education in England closes next Wednesday. Earlier this year our Unsafe Sex Education report
revealed that more than
three-quarters of state-funded secondary faith schools in England are failing to teach this subject impartially.
We encourage our supporters to respond to the consultation to argue against
the government's guidance being watered down on religious grounds.
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Other news
The government has asked the Law Commission to review how to promote greater
flexibility on wedding venues for couples in England and Wales. The move was announced in this week's Budget (see section 6.10). Earlier this year we
wrote to the government to call for the
marriage laws to be "fully secularised". Within our letter we recommended allowing couples to marry wherever they like regardless of their religious affiliation.
Just under 750 cases of female genital mutilation were referred
to the Metropolitan Police over the last five years, though prosecutors are still yet to make a conviction.
The foreign secretary has told parliament that reports of mass
internment camps for Uighur Muslims in China are "broadly true".
The Catholic Church is about to be inundated
with writs from survivors of clerical abuse who previously received modest payments in the Australian state of Victoria.
Amendments which would legalise abortion and same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland have been added
to a bill currently making its way through parliament. Peers are divided
over whether to extend abortion rights and same-sex marriage equality to Northern Ireland in the absence of a devolved administration.
After setbacks in court, the Trump administration is revising rules that allow employers to deny women
insurance coverage for contraceptives based on religious or moral objections. Officials hope the changes will overcome judges' objections without fundamentally
altering the purpose or the effects of the rules. Meanwhile the administration has been accused of promoting damaging messages on sex education and withdrawing resources from valuable
programmes.
A brewery in west Yorkshire has said it is
"open to" changing the name of a beer called 'Ganesh' after the head of a Hindu group took offence.
To get all the latest news and views on secularism from the media in your inbox every morning, you can sign up to receive your daily media
briefing.
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Secularism 2019: reclaiming religious freedom
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Religious lobbyists commonly use terms like 'religious freedom' to demand privileges. But this conference will show that genuine religious freedom involves freedom of belief for people of all religions and none. It will
also explore the limits of religious freedom when it impedes on other human rights, including bodily autonomy, equality and freedom of expression.
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Other events
Other upcoming events include: a talk in London examining the historical conflict between 'blasphemers' and the authorities; a conference on sharia,
segregation and secularism; and a talk by our
honorary associate Gita Sahgal in Nottingham.
See all upcoming events.
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Scholarship applications open
The NSS's scholarship supports students who conduct research relevant to secularism and the promotion of human rights. We invite requests for grants ranging from
£500-£3,000.
We've now opened the latest round of applications. The scholarship is open to anyone publishing research in English.
You can find out more on our research & scholarships page.
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Quotes of the week
"God above everything. There is no such thing as this secular state. The state is Christian and the minority will have to change."
Jair Bolsonaro, the new president of Brazil, makes clear his opposition to secularism in a campaign speech delivered last year and
reported after his election victory this week
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"Within high-control religious communities, the very existence of a non-religious person, or someone who is questioning the status-quo, is deemed
blasphemous."
Imtiaz Shams, co-founder of Faith to Faithless, on the injustice created by blasphemy laws and codes
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"The shooter wasn't a deranged atheist trying to eradicate peaceful worshippers. He was a right-wing conspiracy theorist who openly admitted to hating Jews
specifically... (The US) won't solve the problem of mass shootings with more God in the public square."
Hemant
Mehta, editor of the Friendly Atheist blog on Patheos, responds to Kellyanne Conway's claims that mockery of religion and secularism drove
the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre
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"Anyone should have the right to 'defame' the prophet Muhammad, Jesus Christ, the virgin Mary, Moses, the Buddha, the ayatollah Khomeini, Thomas a Becket,
Joseph Stalin and Abraham Lincoln. To criminalise such speech is an attack on liberty."
David Aaronovitch, Times columnist, responds to the
European Court of Human Rights's judgement
See our quotes of the week archive.
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Essays of the week: the ECHR and free speech
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Read elsewhere
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By Adam Bychawski, for openDemocracy
At Christian Concern's birthday party in London, lobbyists talked about their expansion plans and work to recruit young people.
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By Jude Smith, for Christian Today
The Church of England would focus better on its spiritual task if it no longer registered marriages.
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By Caitlin Cruz, for Bustle
Bolsonaro could make Brazil's abortion policy more extreme as government money will not fund NGOs which promote abortion.
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By Dylan Scott, for Vox
Evangelicals view the Trump presidency as a fundamental realignment of US politics. The Christian right is reasserting itself, and will turn out heavily for
Republican candidates in next week's midterms.
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NSS speaks out
Our briefing to MPs advising against arranging public holidays on religious festival days was quoted at length on the Law & Religion UK blog and
mentioned in The Hindu.
Our president Keith Porteous Wood was quoted in The Tablet on the
response to child abuse from the Benedictine religious order at Ealing Abbey and the campaign for mandatory reporting of abuse.
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