Issue 73 Autumn 2019 challenging religious privilege Exploring

We’re delighted to announce the launch of a engagement with some pressing debates new range of resources for secondary school involving ’s role in society. students and teachers to explore key We’ll also be running a training day on questions related to secularism and religion’s Saturday 9 May next year at Conway Hall in role in society. London, aimed at teachers and anyone else Every secondary school in the UK has involved in education with an interest in received information about our Exploring secularism. The free event, Secularism project. Many have already ordered a ‘Exploring Secularism for Exploring free teacher’s guide and a resource pack on the Educators’, will cover: Secularism core principles of secularism. • What educators need to know SECULARISM & HISTORY FACTSHEET We’re developing more material and covering about secularism five more themes: • The relevance of Exploring Exploring • Freedom of expression Secularism to the Secularism • Equality and human rights curriculum SECULARISM, ART & LITERATURE FACTSHEET • Secularism, religion and society • Using Exploring • Secularism, art and literature Secularism resources Exploring • Secularism and history. • Who’s using Exploring Secularism Secularism has been recognised by the Secularism and SECULARISM, RELIGION & SOCIETY: KEY DEBATES FACTSHEET Commission on as a key how they can help. concept in the study of religion and worldviews. We’ll have more Exploring And Exploring Secularism helps to enrich schools’ details in due course. Secularism EQUALITY & HUMAN RIGHTS FACTSHEET

Exploring “Really excellent and detailed materials for exploring Secularism the ideas and principles of secularism.” FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION FACTSHEET — The Online Centre for Religious Studies­ Exploring Secularism TEACHER RESOURCE PACK CORE PRINCIPLES

Pages 4–5: Standing up for inclusive Pages 6–7: Successes on free speech education on relationships & sex & public health

DATES FOR Saturday 30 November Monday 10 February 2020: Saturday 9 May 2020: 2019: The 1944 Education Act Exploring Secularism YOUR DIARY NSS AGM and its legacy CPD day MESSAGE FROM THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE: STEPHEN EVANS We must teach the young how they benefit from secularism Secularism is worth celebrating. Its separation of religion and state, – routinely equating it with principles underpin liberal societies and their impact on the lives state-enforced and even and the political institutions which they lead. totalitarianism. have been built to protect individual Secularist principles are so Secularism needs a place on the human rights to freedom of thought, embedded in many modern curriculum so that students can have speech and expression. democracies that they tend to be taken a better understanding of it, and The liberation of human reason for granted. This is dangerous. Unless not just the false view of it that its from unquestioned subjugation to secularism’s role in the development opponents promote. religious dogma and authority has of human rights and freedoms is well If we’re looking for space on the facilitated the flourishing not only of curriculum then the obvious subject human rights but also material and “Unless secularism’s role in the to make room would be religious health benefits. None of this would development of human rights education. Britain’s outdated have happened if the deadweight approach to RE should make way for of authoritarian dogmatic religious and freedoms is well understood, a new broader civic education that orthodoxy had not been challenged theocrats will be well placed to encompasses citizenship and human and overcome. erode them.” rights. Such a subject should explore a It is bizarre, therefore, that diverse range of worldviews, practices something so significant rarely understood, theocrats will be well and beliefs, and the role that religious features in the school curriculum. placed to erode them. and secular ideas play in people’s lives Our new Exploring Secularism Secularism is misunderstood, and in society. Secularism should be initiative is an ambitious attempt to sometimes wilfully, and much part of that exploration. put this right. maligned. Those eager to impose Please encourage your local As emerging citizens of 21st their religious faith on others have school to make use of our exciting century societies, pupils should have groundlessly portrayed secularism range of Exploring Secularism an awareness of the importance of as a threat to religious freedom, resources – available for free at secularist principles, such as the promulgating misconceptions exploringsecularism.org Holding religious groups NSS CEO accountable over child abuse challenges circumcision We’re continuing to play an inquiry and is also one of our important role at the Independent vice-presidents, lobbied for these Our chief executive Stephen Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse campaigners’ inclusion. Evans called for an end to the (IICSA) as it investigates child abuse Meanwhile our president Keith non-therapeutic cutting of baby in various religious settings. Porteous Wood spoke at a seminar boys’ genitals in an opinion piece Several campaigners who highlight on mandatory reporting at IICSA and published in The Independent. domestic abuse in minority religious addressed clerical abuse at the UN’s He argued that society should communities have been given formal committee on the rights of the child protect children’s right to grow up in roles in an upcoming hearing. Our (UNCRC) in Geneva. their own bodies and make their own council member Yasmin Rehman will He urged the UNCRC to decisions about religion, rather than be among them as a representative of recommend the adoption of having them imposed on them. JUNO Women’s Aid, which represents mandatory reporting of abuse in His article, which came out shortly women and girls subject to sexual every country where it isn’t in place. after the release of a BBC documentary violence. And IICSA has continued to on circumcision, was widely read and Richard Scorer, a lawyer who reveal damning evidence of the link shared on social media. represents abuse victims at the between deference to religion and This is the latest sign that our the carrying out and covering up of work challenging circumcision is Our vice-president abuse. increasingly driving this issue into the Richard Scorer represents A report on the Church of England’s survivors at IICSA in his mainstream of public debate. role as a lawyer handling of abuse by bishop Peter Ball in Chichester found “serious failings” in its response. And a hearing in July heard significant criticism of senior figures in the Church of England – including the archbishops of Canterbury and York.

2 Bulletin Autumn 2019 Remove religious reps from council education committees We’ve urged members of the Scottish voting privileges in the meantime, as parliament to remove religious appointees RELIGIOUS REPS: Perth & Kinross Council did in April. from councils’ education committees in a UNREPRESENTATIVE, Our report revealed that eight of major report. UNNECESSARY AND Scotland’s 32 councils were willing Our report, Religious Reps: unrepresentative, UNJUSTIFIED to consider revoking voting privileges unnecessary and unjustified, argues that from the representatives. reserving a special role in policy making for We’ve sent the report to all MSPs representatives of religious institutions runs and councillors across Scotland. It counter to democratic principles. was featured on the front page of The Scottish councils are legally required Times in Scotland, and our education to appoint three unelected religious campaigner Alastair Lichten made the representatives to their education argument for change on BBC Scotland. committees. At least one must be We’re also working with the appointed by the Catholic Church and one Edinburgh Secular Society and the by the Church of Scotland. Scottish Secular Society, who have both THE CASE FOR REMOVING The report calls on the Scottish RELIGIOUS APPOINTEES FROM led recent petitions on the subject to EDUCATION COMMITTEES government to change the law and urges IN SCOTLAND the Scottish Parliament, to make councils to revoke religious appointees’ the case. Working to end collective Resisting new worship in schools faith schools Our opposition has helped to end We’re urging the government to repeal the law requiring daily acts of worship plans for a major wave of religiously in schools in England after a high-profile case pushed the issue into the public selective new faith schools in domain. England. We wrote to education secretary Gavin Williamson to urge him to repeal the In March the government requirement to provide “an act of collective worship”. We’re urging supporters announced plans for 14 new voluntary to write to their MPs and help us to make the case. aided faith schools, as we highlighted Our CEO Stephen Evans also rebutted a Church of England defence of in the summer Bulletin. Lobbying from collective worship in a letter published in The Guardian. our No More Faith Schools campaign We took these steps after a couple launched a legal challenge against a has helped to reduce this to just one primary school over its assemblies where children take part in Christian Catholic school in Peterborough in prayers and watch re-enactments of biblical stories such as Jesus’s crucifixion. Cambridgeshire. We’ve provided advice and support to the couple, Lee and Lizanne Harris, That school could potentially be and we raised their case with ministers earlier this year. allowed to select up to 100% of its At that meeting we also raised broader concerns about coercive worship pupils on the basis of their families’ requirements and the lack religion, and we’re continuing to resist of protection for the ethos of plans to open it. community schools which We revealed that the plan had are taken over by faith based almost certainly scuppered an trusts. alternative proposal for an inclusive The Harrises’ children’s secular school to open on the same school is not a faith school but site. And we were quoted in The it joined a Church of England Independent in response to the news the academy trust in 2015. plan was moving forward. Many schools ignore the The local council is set to consult law on worship with the tacit on the plans in November – we’ll be approval of Ofsted and the responding to outline our concerns and Department for Education. urging supporters to do the same. Where worship takes place, Meanwhile the government has parents have the right to announced plans for three new Church withdraw children – but many of England schools to feature among understandably regard this as 22 new schools to open across England. an unreasonable imposition on We’re working to ensure all new themselves and their children. schools are secular. Our CEO Stephen Evans’s letter in The Guardian

www.secularism.org.uk @NatSecSoc 3 Standing up for inclusive education on relationships and sex

We’ve continued to do substantial work resisting religious campaigners’ attempts to undermine inclusive teaching on relationships and sex. Our concerns were reported in Schools Week We revealed a coordinated effort by ultra-Orthodox We also exposed comments by a same-sex relationships. We raised Jewish schools to refuse to teach Church of England school governor concerns that Ofsted was allowing aspects of relationships and sex in South Yorkshire who described some faith schools to teach that education (RSE) by exploiting LGBT-inclusive education as “child same-sex relationships were wrong loopholes in Department for grooming” and said it “opens the door while punishing schools that refuse to Education regulations. for sexual predators”. talk about those relationships. State and independent schools plan The governor, who was in his In our letter we highlighted the to claim LGBT-inclusive teaching is not position because he was the local findings of our major reportUnsafe “age appropriate” or suitable for pupils vicar, made his remarks in a rant Sex Education, which revealed that due to their religious backgrounds. in a church magazine. They were many faith schools were teaching that The revelations, which were subsequently widely reported in same-sex relationships were wrong. reported in Schools Week, showed we’ve the press and the governor resigned Meanwhile the government has been justified to voice concern about from his position after the school said it will require schools in England government guidance which gives investigated. to take “the religious background religious schools in England leeway And we wrote to the education of all pupils into account” during to teach RSE in accordance with their inspectorate Ofsted to challenge its RSE lessons when they become faith (see below). double standards on teaching about compulsory next year. Ministers water down Resisting confessional requirement to respect RE in European court difference We’ve submitted a third-party intervention to the European Court of Human Rights in a key case We’re concerned that the concerning religious education in schools. government has weakened In Papageorgiou and Others v. Greece, two Greek students guidance for independent argue that the confessional nature of religious education schools on encouraging respect and arrangements for pupil withdrawal violate their for difference – in an apparent human rights. sop to religious groups. The appellants claim Greece’s education policies The Department for Education has said schools are concerning RE breach the European Convention on obliged to encourage respect for other people in personal, Human Rights. social, health and economic education only “to the extent Greece’s system for exemption from RE classes obliges that is considered age appropriate”. parents to reveal their or their children’s religious It’s also said schools: beliefs and subjects those beliefs to investigation by • Won’t “normally” face enforcement action if they fail the school principal. to meet “only one or two” of the independent school Our submission argues that this conflicts with standards, depending on their “severity” European Court of Human Rights case law.

• May teach that “some , all religions, or atheism 3.0] BY-SA [CC Wikipedia via © CherryX, / are wrong” • Have “wide discretion” to adjust their personal, social and health education content to reflect their “faith ethos”. The government made the changes after receiving feedback on a draft version of its guidance. Many concerns objected to the need to promote equality – and the government said a “significant proportion” of them came from “the Charedi Jewish community”. We responded to the draft guidance and we’ll continue to stand against religious efforts to inculcate children into European Court of Human Rights narrow worldviews.

4 Bulletin Autumn 2019 ‘No Outsiders’ message welcomed at Bradlaugh Lecture

In September our third Bradlaugh Andrew Moffat, an assistant lecture – which addressed religious headteacher at Parkfield fundamentalist opposition to LGBT- Community School in inclusive education – attracted a full Birmingham, delivered the house in Manchester. lecture. Andrew is the creator of ‘No Outsiders’, a programme for teaching about equality and diversity in primary schools. The lessons aim to prepare children for life in modern Britain by teaching that everyone should be respected and accepted, no matter what their race, religion or sexual A Muslim family presented Andrew with flowers and a card in a show of support orientation. Andrew and No Outsiders Outsiders. He brought examples of became the targets of aggressive story books used in the programme protests and threats at the to demonstrate that they are age- beginning of 2019. The protesters, appropriate and do not feature any most of whom were Muslim, content relating to sex education or objected to children being taught any ‘hidden agendas’. about LGBT people because He added that unclear guidance they said it went against their from the Department for Education religious beliefs. has made it extremely difficult Andrew said that he created to resist pressure from religious No Outsiders as a means of lobbyists to stop teaching that some teaching the values of equality children have two fathers or two and tolerance in order to mothers. The DfE says schools must counter social problems such as take parents’ religions and belief hate crimes, homophobia and into account when teaching about extremism. relationships. He countered myths and For those of you who didn’t make it, a video of the lecture will soon be Andrew Moffat with Stephen Evans in front of the misinformation that opponents Bradlaugh portrait have circulated about No available on our YouTube channel.

Backing home schooling reform to protect children’s rights We’ve backed government efforts to tackle illegal faith schools and protect children’s rights by introducing a registration system for children who don’t attend state-funded or registered independent schools. We responded to a government consultation to say all children’s educational rights must be protected, irrespective of their religious background. We highlighted concerns that pupils in unregistered Jewish yeshivas and Muslim madrasas are often schooled in squalid conditions where safeguarding is lacking. Earlier this year we also passed a file containing a number of known unregistered schools in the Stamford Hill area of London to the Department for Education.

www.secularism.org.uk @NatSecSoc 5 Man sacked for blasphemy is reinstated We helped a man who was sacked by Asda for sharing a quote from the comedian Billy Connolly mocking religion on social media – and he was duly reinstated. Brian Leach was sacked in June after a colleague complained that a sketch he shared, in which Connolly said “religion is over” and called suicide bombers “wankers”, was anti-Islamic. He was employed as a checkout assistant at Asda’s Dewsbury store in West Yorkshire. We got in touch with Brian, helped him throughout an internal appeals process and made public that we were exploring the possibility of a legal challenge. In July we revealed that Brian had been given his job back. The decision was a victory for common sense, but the case raises broader concerns about the extent to which employers can legitimately restrict their Brian Leach employees’ freedom of expression on social media. Resisting ‘Islamophobia’ definition We’ve continued to push back against Council to do so. the drive to adopt a censorious As we reported in the summer definition of ‘Islamophobia’ proposed Bulletin, our opposition has already by the all-party parliamentary group helped to convince the government on British Muslims. not to adopt the definition. We were among free speech The APPG’s definition says advocates who had essays published Islamophobia is “a type of racism that in a major anthology outlining targets expressions of Muslimness concerns with the definition, or perceived Muslimness”. We’re published by the think tank Civitas. continuing to argue that this vague The government has said it will We’ve written to local councillors and broad definition will curtail establish its own working definition urging them to reject the definition – freedom of expression and shut down of the term, and we’re planning to and we convinced Lancashire County legitimate criticism of Islam. engage with that process. Pushing the Defending free expression online and in the press government on We warned the government against plans to require social media companies to censor “hateful” and “offensive” content blasphemy laws in response to a consultation on online harms. A government white paper has outlined plans to create a regulator We asked the government to review its stance on with the power to fine online blasphemy laws amid concern that ministers only platforms and block websites, who criticise their “misuse” rather than their existence. will be required to create guidance In recent months several ministers have outlining what constitutes “hateful condemned the “misuse” of blasphemy laws in content” online. Pakistan in parliament without condemning the The guidance would include content which is “not existence of the laws. necessarily illegal”, content which may “directly or indirectly “The best way to champion the rights and cause harm to other users” and some “offensive material” in freedoms of those who live in fear of religious that definition. We said censoring content that could be considered offensive persecution in Pakistan and elsewhere is to would “severely restrict freedom of expression, including the demand the repeal of blasphemy laws, without freedom to criticise or satirise religion”. apology or qualification.” We also wrote to the press regulator Ipso and met with its Our letter to the Foreign Office representatives over its plans to publish guidance on the way Islam and Muslims are reported. We wrote to the Foreign Office to call for a review We raised concerns that the guidance could dilute the of the government’s public statements. We said freedom to criticise Islamic practices and exacerbate a climate criticisms which solely focused on the ‘misuse’ of of censorship and self-censorship on the subject. the laws suggested there were legitimate uses for Ipso’s guidance will be published in the autumn, and we’ll them. continue to urge it to prioritise free expression on religion.

6 Bulletin Autumn 2019 Success: NSS lobbying changes public vaccination advice

Our lobbying convinced Public Health advice from their faith or community rationale for advising people to England (PHE) to change guidance leaders” to “inform their decision” on consult “faith leaders”, saying its which encouraged parents to seek vaccination. statement sent “a confusing and advice from “faith leaders” over The statement came as it emerged potentially harmful message”. whether to vaccinate their children. that some Muslim parents were PHE wrote back to us to say it had We wrote to PHE after it encouraged refusing to let children have a flu reviewed our concerns and removed parents to seek advice from religious vaccine. But PHE was using similar the line from the booklet. leaders over whether to get their language in an official booklet on The change of policy was then children vaccinated. vaccines and pork gelatine. reported in The Times, with our PHE said parents should “seek We asked PHE to explain its response quoted.

“In principle, a public health authority should not refer the public to authorities with no medical expertise or certification on matters relating to medicine.”

Our letter to Public Health England Our success was reported in The Times Defending patients’ Defending the freedom from evangelism right to access

We raised the case of a GP in Kent described the warning he received contraception who continued to proselytise to as “disgraceful”. patients despite a warning not to do Our letter said it was clear Scott We asked a medical regulator to investigate an incident in which a so, prompting an investigation into felt no remorse for the actions pharmacist reportedly refused to his conduct. that earnt him the warning, held serve a woman contraception for We wrote to the General Medical the GMC in contempt and hadn’t “personal reasons”. Council (GMC) and a local clinical stopped using his position as a We wrote to the General commissioning group to highlight doctor to evangelise. Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) after the case of Dr Richard Scott, whose The case generated press a woman was refused use of prayer made a vulnerable coverage in outlets including The the morning after patient uncomfortable. Sunday Times and The Telegraph, and pill at a branch of An acquaintance told us the our president Keith Porteous Wood Lloyds Pharmacy in patient felt unable to express discussed it on LBC. Brighton. discomfort and wasn’t able to raise We also wrote to the BBC earlier She was told she the matter formally or change GP this year to register concerns should come back practice. that the show featuring Scott the following day In our letter we also highlighted breached its editorial guidelines on or travel to the comments Dr Scott had made on a impartiality. nearest open BBC radio show earlier this year. On pharmacy, the show he said he most which was 10 commonly introduced miles away. Most faith into consultations local chemists were closed when “dealing with because it was a Sunday. people with depression or We highlighted relevant GPhC anxiety”. guidance which places the onus of The GMC is now responsibility on pharmacies and considering disciplinary pharmacy owners to ensure action against Dr Scott. personal beliefs do not restrict patient access. It previously warned In response the GPhC said it was him in 2012 after he “looking at what Lloyds Pharmacy distressed a patient by is doing” to ensure its policies and trying to persuade him procedures were compliant with to change his religion. In its guidance. Lloyds Pharmacy the BBC documentary he apologised to the woman affected.

© HRA Pharma, via Wikimedia Commons [CC BY-SA 4.0] (cropped)

www.secularism.org.uk @NatSecSoc 7 OTHER Just 12% of Brits CAMPAIGNING n We challenged guidance from affiliate to C of E the NSPCC which withheld and altered information and advice We’ve called for a serious rethink for those raising concerns about of religion’s public role after the latest British Social Attitudes survey child abuse within “Jewish showed that just 12% of people in communities”. Britain are affiliated to the Anglican 2% 31% 40% 26% Church. 1983 n We reported four Islamic No C of E / Other Other The highly-respected survey religion Anglican Christian religion charities to the regulator, the showed that: 52% 12% 26% 9% Charity Commission for England • Affiliation to the C of E had and Wales, over their promotion dropped by more than two-thirds 2018 of deeply intolerant attitudes to in a generation – and had almost ‘apostates’, women and gay halved in just a decade people. • The proportion of Brits who don’t affiliate to a religion was above 50% n The BBC diluted some of its for the third year running protections for religious ideas in • Trust in churches and other Our chief executive Stephen Evans new editorial guidelines after we religious institutions was very low. appearedNo religion on Sky – News, 1983: talkRADIO31%; 2018: 52% urged changes in response to a After the results were released we and LBCChurch and ofwas England quoted / Anglican in several – 1983: 40%; 2018: 12% argued that Britain’s constitutional reports.Other Our Christian communications – 1983: 26%; 2019 – 26% consultation. settlement should catch up with the officerOther Chris religion Sloggett – 1983: also 2%;went 2019: on 9% opinions of its population. talkRADIO. n Our president Keith Porteous Wood attended a conference on the establishment of the Church of England at the Ecclesiastical 1944 Education Act event Law Society. n We wrote to councillors in Date: 10 February 2020, 7pm Norfolk and Denbighshire to urge Location: Conway Hall, London, WC1R 4RL them to scrap the practice of The 1944 Education Act brought hundreds of faith holding prayers before meetings. schools into the state sector in England and Wales We also urged an equality charity and introduced daily worship in all schools. The chair in Kent to reconsider its support of the NSS’s Secular Education Forum, Keith Sharpe, for prayers. will look at the history of the act and consider the profound legacy it has on schooling today. n We asked the Saatchi Gallery Tickets are free. We recommend registering in in west London to review its advance at secularism.org.uk/1944event. decision to cover two paintings in cloth in response to complaints from Muslim visitors. New honorary associate We’re very pleased to announce that Bulletin bestselling author and priest GP Taylor, an outspoken critic of religious Issue 73 | Autumn 2019 privilege in education, has become an NSS honorary associate. 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL “The work of the NSS is of vital Registered Company No. 1418145 importance at a time when religious Telephone: (020) 7404 3126 voices are getting louder and louder. Email: [email protected] It is now time for the state and church Twitter: @NatSecSoc to become separate and religion of Design by Bradley Davis of WhiteLight any kind to play no part in politics, Contact us for additional copies education or public life.” — GP Taylor

8 Bulletin Autumn 2019