Secularism and religious intolerance

In today's guest Blog, Gordon Ellis writes about secularism, religion and Scotland.  

A former leader of the Anglican community’s 80 million adherents worldwide thinks that the government is "aiding and abetting" aggressive secularisation.

Lord Carey, a former Archbishop of Canterbury, also drew attention to a recent ComRes poll, which suggested "more than two-thirds of Christians feel that they are part of a 'persecuted minority'".

Secularisation of Scotland

A 2008 report on secularisation in Scotland highlighted that Western countries are going through a process of cultural change driven by growing wealth over the last decades, which has spurred economic independence for individuals.

Their overall dependence on other people and institutions, including the church and religion has, it is stated, accordingly, diminished. The report went on to state that not only the increase in wealth, but also increased mobility and the global information network have opened new doors to regular members of society. As a result, society is less influenced by the traditional ties and values that once shaped society. These trends are thought by the authors to have contributed to a substantial increase in secularisation in the west, including in Scotland.

Global events: Islam and the west

At the same time, global events such as the emergence of Al Qaida, the Taliban influence in Afghanistan and elsewhere, and terrorist attacks of 9/11 and 7/7, have focused very much on Islam in the negative sense.

There is as a result a feeling amongst many Muslims that Islamophobia is not taken very seriously and that because of their history as Muslims, terrorist atrocities and such, people feel like they deserve the abuse.

Despite all the negativity, Islam is stated to be the fastest growing religion with over 1.5 billion followers or 23% of the world’s population, and second only in size to Christianity. So, from Christianity and Islam alone, religion is a major influence on almost half of the world’s population, and, in that context, still very much a force to be reckoned with.

Personal experience

In 2005 I was helping the Muslim Community in the Highlands organise a summer school for young Muslims, to assist them in developing their cultural identity within the wider Highland diaspora. It was scheduled to start on 25 July, and 7/7 intervened.

My first discussion with the teacher from Birmingham who was to come to Scotland some three weeks later, was to convince him not to cancel the summer school, as the timing was not right for “moderate” Muslims to be potentially in the public eye.

I am glad to say that the summer school went ahead and was an unqualified success, culminating in the awarding by the Provost of Inverness of certificates of achievement to the participants in the splendour of the Inverness Town House, and wide positive publicity in the media for “moderate” Islam.
Hate crime against Muslims

A UK wide government-backed project set up in 2012 to monitor anti-Muslim hate has recorded 632 incidents in its first year.

Three-quarters of the incidents recorded by Tell Mama occurred online, with Twitter particularly highlighted as a source of abuse. In cases of verbal or street-based abuse those behind the project say it is Islamic clothing, like hijabs, that singles people out.

In January a pig's head was left in the garden of an Afghan family in London. There have been a number of incidents involving pork-based items being left at mosques and in December a cross wrapped in ham was left outside the home of a Muslim family in Bingham, Nottinghamshire.

Support from the Jewish community

What is encouraging is the support, which is apparent from the Jewish community, on whose monitoring model the Muslim initiative is based. The Community Safety Trust (CST), which has for almost 30 years been recording incidents of anti-Semitism in the UK has indicated:

"CST is glad that our work countering anti-Semitism has helped Tell Mama provide the Muslim community with a proper mechanism for reporting and understanding anti-Muslim hate crimes. It has taken CST nearly 30 years of focus and professionalism to get to where we are today, so what Tell Mama has achieved in just one year is very impressive.…. if our joint co-operation helps break down barriers between British Muslims and Jews, then all the better."

Muslims in Scotland

The Scottish Muslim population is dwarfed by the much larger 2.7 million in England and Wales. Immigration of Muslims to Scotland is relatively recent, the bulk of Muslims in Scotland come from families who immigrated during the late 20th century.

The 2011 census analysis published by the Scottish government, indicates that In Scotland Muslims represent 0.9% of the population (42,557), with 30,000 in Glasgow (there are 10 times this number in Birmingham alone). Many Scottish Muslims are of South Asian descent primarily hailing from Pakistan, whose well documented political turmoil is rightly or wrongly associated with the more “extreme” adherents of Islam.

Islam misrepresented

In 2006, the Scottish Communities Minister opined that Islam is often "misunderstood, misinterpreted and misrepresented" and that anti Islam comments or abuse would not be tolerated in a Scotland which values religious diversity.

Notwithstanding, I am aware that many Muslims still feel vulnerable.

Indeed, there appears to be an increasing groundswell of opinion in the Muslim community in England, that the government does not offer the level of support that is justified by the vast majority of “moderate” Muslims, but chooses to focus on the radicalised minority and their excesses, both in the UK and abroad, for purely political ends. This would seem to accord to a considerable extent with what is being said by Lord Carey in respect of the government attitude to Christianity and the Christians’ feelings of persecution.

Religion: challenges from change

Like society at large, religion is looking to address change and challenges which are now on a global scale. The new Pope Francis has focussed very much on social justice, and a simpler “back to basics” approach. Included in the group that prayed with Pope Francis at the crypt of St Peter at his inauguration was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew. It was the first time since the split between the Eastern and Western churches in 1054 that the leader of the Eastern Orthodox churches has attended a papal inauguration.

Different denominations, and different religions, share many of the same challenges - scepticism and indifference for example - in the increasingly secular Western world.

In order to move with the times, and contribute to the development of a society which does not tolerate inequality or discrimination, as well as having the mechanisms in place to deal with it, churches, I would suggest, have a potentially pivotal role to play, but need to work smarter, and of equal, perhaps greater importance, together.

Positive change

On a positive note, with particular reference to Scotland, I am reminded of an Aberdeen Episcopal Church which recently opened its doors to local Muslims whose adjacent mosque was too small to accommodate them.

Despite unwarranted, primarily online, criticism from some, Muslims and Christian worshippers at St John's Church hope their special relationship could serve as a model for the rest of the country. Indeed, the Episcopal Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney, Dr Robert Gillies, said the arrangement at St John's could serve as a lesson for the rest of the world.

''What we are doing here, is something local that has global significance,'' he said.

''We have demonstrated that Christians and Muslims do not have to agree with one another. But they can learn to respect each other's different beliefs and actually come to get along and even like one another." Take note, please, the religious persecutors of Indonesia, Southern India and Sri Lanka and Burma.

Religious tolerance in Scotland

In Scotland, religious tolerance even within the various Christian communities has proved challenging enough, the West of Scotland catholic protestant anxieties, and the splits within the Free Church, for example.

To add to the mix the impact of globalization and the influence of an increasingly diverse ethnic community, including Islam, contributes considerably to the difficulties of applying the requirement to “the fostering of good relations between individuals who share protected characteristics”, in this case religion and belief, of which the Aberdeen initiative is an excellent example. As if that is not enough, one must add the complicating dimensions of same sex marriage, women priests, celibacy and historical allegations of abuse.

Fostering good relations - Equality Act 2010

Interesting times lie ahead for religion, within and outside Scotland. In that context, the government, which is subject to the equality duty to foster good relations between individuals who share protected characteristics and for removing or minimising disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics, needs to play a more proactive part in addressing the legitimate concerns of both Christians and Muslims that they are being increasingly subject to persecution.

GORDON ELLIS, APRIL 2013