Sunday 18 October, 16.00 until 17.15, Cinema 1, Barbican Keynote Controversies
Islamist extremists in Bangladesh have hacked to death several atheist bloggers in recent years. In the territory it controls, Islamic State takes non-Muslims as slaves. Today it seems the greatest threat to freedom of conscience is religion itself, especially in the form of radical Islamism, which seems every bit as intolerant and tyrannical as the Inquisition in its pomp. In contrast, the modern, secular West prides itself on tolerating all religions and none, Islam included; despite fears of a misdirected Islamophobic backlash against terrorism, most people believe Muslims should be free to practise their religion without hindrance.
We like to think we have learned the lessons of the Inquisition and the religious wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and now value religious tolerance as the key to a peaceful and harmonious society. More than that, in the liberal tradition that has dominated Western thought since the Enlightenment, freedom of thought and speech has been seen as essential to the dignity of each individual. The philosopher John Locke argued in his 1689 Letter Concerning Toleration that the authorities had no right to tell people what to think or believe; it was unacceptable that people should ‘quit the light of their own reason, and oppose the dictates of their own consciences, and blindly resign themselves up to the will of their governors’.
Nevertheless, there are signs today that this liberal tradition is waning. It is not only Islamists who want to tell people what to believe, and nor are swords and suicide bombs the only means used to silence unwelcome ideas. Of all places, it is university campuses that pride themselves on a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to speech and beliefs deemed harmful to students, with sanctions on religious societies for holding anti-abortion events or imposing sex segregation at their own meetings. Meanwhile, there is pressure on academics to keep tabs on potentially ‘radicalised’ students. Beyond the universities, the government is increasingly seeking ways to clamp down on extremism, with complaints from Christian groups that aspects of the Prevent and British Values agenda in schools undermine values promoted in faith schools.
At the same time, equality legislation has led to demands to circumscribe religious groups’ rights, with prosecutions of those whose alleged discrimination for religious reasons against gay people, such as the recent controversy around the Christian-run Northern Irish bakery Ashers, which refused to make a cake with the slogan ‘Support gay marriage’. Meanwhile, earlier this year a family court judge ruled that the seven-year-old son of a Jehovah’s Witness should be taken into care because his mother caused the child ‘emotional harm’ by ‘immersing’ him in her ‘religious beliefs and practices’. Meanwhile, of course, many religious people themselves are not above demanding censorship to protect their own sensibilities from hurt.
So are the Enlightenment concepts of freedom of conscience and tolerance no longer relevant to the modern world?
Dolan Cummings
associate fellow, Academy of Ideas; author, That Existential Leap: a crime story (forthcoming from Zero Books) |
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Dr Eliza Filby
visiting lecturer in Modern British History, King’s College London; author, God and Mrs Thatcher: The battle for Britain’s soul |
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Dr Humeria Iqtidar
senior lecturer in politics, Department of Political Economy, King’s College London |
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Christopher Jamison
director, National office for vocation, Catholic Church of England and Wales; author, Finding Sanctuary and Finding Happiness; featured in BBC TV's The Monastery |
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Leszek Jazdzewski
editor-in-chief, Polish liberal journal Liberté! |
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Angus Kennedy
convenor, The Academy; author, Being Cultured: in defence of discrimination |
Debating Matters' acclaimed Topic Guides place debates in a social context
Nadia Butt, Debating Matters, 28 August 2015The authorities’ attack on religious schools is an affront to a tolerant society
Frank Furedi, spiked, 9 June 2015Pope Francis visits the Sri Lankan city of Colombo on Wednesday where he gives the country its first saint at a mass attended by hundreds of thousands of people. Missionary Joseph Vaz was canonised after a 300-year campaign to recognise his work. Pope Francis told the crowd they should follow Vaz's example of religious tolerance
Reuters, 14 January 2015Pew Research Centre report says the US and UK are among countries showing a worrying rise in religious discrimination
Peter Beaumont, Guardian, 20 September 2012Claire Fox, Director of the Institute of Ideas is the guest expert on this fascinating in depth, on the sofa discussion on tolerance.
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