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Newsline 8 June 2018

Secularism is a crucial ingredient in a harmonious society in which the state views all citizens equally. Whereas the multifaith approach to public policy risks sacrificing basic rights and principles, a secular one upholds them.

Tolerance of diversity is important but pursuing multiculturalism as a policy goal creates manifest problems. And in a country as religiously indifferent and varied as ours it is particularly nonsensical to organise public policy around religious identities.

This is most important in schools. State-funded faith schools encourage children to adopt separatist identities. Community schools are far better equipped to teach them to see each other's sameness.

We made these points this week when we responded to the government's Integrated Communities Strategy. And we'll keep saying that if policy makers want social cohesion, they must stand consistently for separation between religion and government.

News & Opinion

 

NSS says integration efforts should focus on common citizenship

The National Secular Society has called on the government to treat citizens as individuals and to clamp down on the segregation caused by faith schools... Read More »

 

NI abortion law incompatible with human rights, says Supreme Court

The National Secular Society has reiterated its call for reform of Northern Ireland's abortion laws after a majority of Supreme Court judges said they... Read More »

 

Thousands march for marriage equality in NI

Thousands of people attended marches in Belfast and Londonderry to call for marriage equality for same-sex couples in Northern Ireland on Saturday.

Police... Read More »

 

Scottish government to spend more on Catholic teacher training

The National Secular Society has criticised the Scottish government after the first minister announced a 450% increase in the amount of money spent on... Read More »

 

It shouldn’t be normal for pubs to conform to blasphemy codes

The brewer Greene King has taken the Saudi Arabian flag down from its World Cup displays after complaints from some Muslims that an Islamic symbol shouldn't... Read More »

 

New guidance on the right to withdraw from RE in Wales – response

New guidance on managing parents' right to withdraw their children from religious education in Wales is largely common sense, says Alastair Lichten. But... Read More »

Other news

Prince Charles has been asked to give a witness statement to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse over the case of a paedophile bishop.

The EU's top court has ruled that same-sex spouses have the same residency rights as opposite-sex couples.

The Scottish parliament has unanimously passed the Historical Sexual Offences (Pardons and Disregards) Bill, which automatically pardons past convictions for homosexuality.

The Free Church of Scotland and the Christian Institute have reacted angrily after NHS bosses halted plans to place Bibles beside every bed in a new hospital in Dumfries.

Bavaria's prime minister has said the Vatican supports the state's decision to place crosses on all public buildings.

Bermuda's Supreme Court has overturned a ban on same-sex marriage which was signed into law four months ago.

Spain's new leader Pedro Sanchez has become the first prime minister in the country's modern democratic era to take the oath of office without religious symbols present.

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.

Read elsewhere

 

The US Supreme Court’s Masterpiece Cakeshop ruling: what really happened

By Kelly Percival, for Americans United for Separation of Church and State

The US Supreme Court has ruled in favour of Masterpiece Cakeshop, which refused to bake a cake for a same-sex couple's wedding. In a pluralistic society religious freedom is truly achieved only if businesses remain open to all regardless of their beliefs.

 

Europe and America part ways when it comes to 'religious freedom'

Erasmus blog, for The Economist

Events in America are making it harder to agree about persecution and whom it afflicts.

Quote of the week

"If, as well as the curtailment on their autonomy which this involves, [women] are carrying a foetus with a fatal abnormality or have been the victims of rape or incest, they are condemned, because legislation enacted in another era has decreed it, to endure untold suffering and desolation. What is that, if it is not humiliation and debasement?"
Lord Kerr, Supreme Court judge and former chief justice of NI, on abortion laws in Northern Ireland

See our quotes of the week archive...

Essays of the week

We can't just abandon children to face a rising tide of extremism and hate alone
By Joe McElroy, for Tes

The Prevent programme may be controversial, but the teachers it affects are helping to support and protect children.

One Iranian woman's courageous struggle against being forced to wear the hijab
By Joanna Moorhead, for the Guardian

An interview with Masih Alinejad of the My Stealthy Freedom campaign, which encourages women to shed their hijabs in Iran. She says she wants to give women choice.

The desperation to keep Turkey different
By Donna Abu-Nasr and Cagan Koc, for Bloomberg

Secularists are on the defensive in Turkey as an election looms.

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