
Every week in Newsline we have a couple of quotes of the week on topics related to secularism. Please feel free to share these images.
Fri, 01 Mar 2019
It doesn't wash because what is happening is not a personal moral lapse, to be treated as a sin to address through penitence and prayer, but a crime in which the church has been an accomplice.
The New York Times editorial board, on the pope's approach to child abuse
Earlier, Pope Francis had urged the 200 religious leaders to listen to the cry of the little ones who are seeking justice. Then he shut his ears, opened his mouth and delivered hogwash, heavy on religious metaphor, light on specifics.
Annie Brown
The pope has undone the tiny bit of progress that possibly was achieved this week. He was defensive, rationalising that abuse happens in all sectors of society. Ironically and sadly, he exhibited no responsibility, no accountability and no transparency.
Anne Barrett Doyle, the co-founder of Bishop Accountability
I have had death threats and very nasty emails and phone calls. Many of the protesters are not parents. Some come from as far away as Wales. In the last protest there were 250 people; about 80 were from the school. It is unpleasant — not something I want any teacher to have to go through.
Andrew Moffat, assistant head teacher of a primary school in Birmingham who has faced threats for LGBT inclusive education
Fri, 07 Sep 2018
It seems that 'saviours' of Muslims are more sensitive about anything that could potentially offend Muslims than Muslims are themselves.
Armin Navabi, ex-Muslim activist, reflects on a Hilton Hotel in Texas kicking out people who were wearing ex-Muslim T-shirts
Fri, 17 Aug 2018
Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all. For decades. Monsignors, auxiliary bishops, bishops, archbishops, cardinals have mostly been protected; many have been promoted.
A grand jury in the US, on the cover-up of child abuse in the Catholic Church
It is even more important that we challenge the preaching of modesty codes for women. But how do we do that if the debate is constantly shut down? We are in danger of fostering an atmosphere where the silent Muslim majority dare not voice their concerns.
Iram Ramzan, Sunday Times reporter
The best guarantee of religious freedom and religious tolerance is a well-organised secular state. The courts and the state should take no views on the existence of God…. There is a higher authority, it's called the law.
Ian McEwan, author, makes the case for secularism on BBC Newsnight
I talked my daughter out of hijab. I would have burnt her veil had she chosen it. My mum's generation didn't come to this country to be subjugated and see the rise of Islamism & jihadism again. They valued British values where they had autonomy, rights and freedoms no one ever gave them.
Gina Khan, human rights activist
Fri, 10 Aug 2018
In their narrow focus on issues such as 'Islamophobia' and foreign policy, they ignore the reality that many Muslims are more interested in the same issues as the wider population: jobs, education and the NHS.
Jawad Iqbal, freelance writer, on self-appointed Muslim leaders
Don't shut down discussion; that way lies censorship and a narrowing of vision. The biggest mistake at the moment is to talk about offending the Muslim 'community'… It lumps people into one homogeneous group, depersonalises them and makes it easier to attack them en masse.
Janet Street-Porter, saying the best response to Boris Johnson's comments on the burka is to embrace the freedom to disagree
Fri, 03 Aug 2018
I can't bear it that the frightful, terrifying man is on the loose again and doing his worst… I'll see off this horrid man if he tries anything again.
Prince Charles, writing to the abusive bishop Peter Ball in 1997, referring to one of Ball's accusers, in a letter revealed by the IICSA inquiry
Hatred has been given a mainstream legitimacy.
Nazia Erum, author, reflecting on the situation for Muslims as Hindu nationalism grows in strength in India
Fri, 27 Jul 2018
It's an ecclesiastical protection racket, and the attitude is that anyone who seeks to in any way threaten the reputation of the church as an institution has to be destroyed.
Rev. Graham Sawyer, reflecting on the Church of England's response to sexual abuse at the IICSA inquiry
All of us at the time were saying, well, he wasn't raping anybody. There was no penetrative sex. And I think our weakness was actually to put it as the lowest of the low instead of seeing that whatever it is, it's unbecoming of a bishop.
George Carey, on the way the C of E responded to Peter Ball's abuse in evidence to the IICSA inquiry
Every time a Muslim or anyone else pops their head above the parapet to try to deal with some of the genuine problems the community faces, this toxic coalition emerges to try to cut it off... No one wins but the extremists.
David Aaronovitch, responding to activists who denounced Rotherham MP Sarah Champion's concern over Muslim-Asian sex gangs
Fri, 20 Jul 2018
The education system should be about having children together from all different backgrounds and if religion is important to parents or to a community, it can certainly be done outside of school time or perhaps at the weekend, or the churches themselves could step up to the plate.
Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, Labour senator in Ireland
Fri, 13 Jul 2018
For many people, the things I have been talking about today are too sensitive and too difficult for them to want to risk giving offence. They are easy things to skirt, yet the risk of doing so is great. If we leave these topics to the likes of the English Defence League and British National party on the one hand and Islamists on the other, then the mission of integration will fail.
Amanda Spielman, Ofsted's chief inspector of schools in England, on practices such as the wearing of the hijab in schools
Fri, 06 Jul 2018
It was part of my culture. It was something that I was told was better for the child, cleaner... but as I've got older [I've realised] my cultural views don't make it different to what it actually is.
Stacey Solomon, TV presenter, expressing her regret at having her son circumcised
I would assume what Mr Cunningham means isn't just that [Catholic schools] accept children from all faiths but they accept their views. If that was really the case you've got to question what the point in Catholic schools is. Surely that would make them nothing more than a comprehensive school.
John Duncan, vice-chair of the Scottish Secular Society, responds to claims by Glasgow's convener of education, Chris Cunningham, that Catholic schools are "welcoming" and "inclusive" to all
Dr Singh may be ludicrous but he is also consequential.
David Aaronovitch, on India's minister for higher education, who claimed this week that evolution is scientifically wrong
I'm telling El Al that if you give in to the terrorism of Haredi-hating groups and remove a passenger who behaved properly and asked nicely to sit next to a man, we will remove hundreds of thousands of your passengers every year. Terror against terror.
United Torah Judaism MK Yisrael Eichler, giving a sane, balanced reaction to Israeli airline El Al's decision not to ask women to give way to Haredi men in the Knesset
Fri, 29 Jun 2018
If the state's role is to promote integration and equality, it's counter-intuitive to allow schools which are distinguished by religious faith, whether that is Church in Wales, Roman Catholic or Muslim.
Laura McAllister, Wales Online columnist, says the Welsh government has a responsibility to create an inclusive school system
The British values and equality policy they [Jewish schools] are expected to promote and protect also secure our freedom of religion and safeguard Jewish people as a minority group.
David Davidi-Brown, arguing that only fundamentalists need to fear fundamental British values
Education should inspire rational thought and display the pleasures of deep understanding; it should not propagate the social poison of divisive dogma.