‘Multiculturalism’ was the theme of the BHA’s final meeting at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham. The meeting was held in conjunction with the Conservative Humanist Association (CHA) and was chaired by its head, Victoria Chamberlin. Founder of the Fatima Women’s Network Parvin Ali, and lecturer and author Dr Rumy Hasan, joined BHA Chief Executive Andrew Copson in discussing faith, multiculturalism and the “Big Society”.
There was some consensus among the panel that, in recent years, government policy on ‘multiculturalism’ actually meant ‘multifaithism’. That policy which sees and treats people as ‘faith’ groups and not as individuals, was damaging and divisive and antithetical to the aims of social cohesion. Ms Ali said that a focus on ‘faith’ in policy was discriminatory to those within so-called ‘faith’ groups, including women who are rarely the leaders and often excluded from activities and buildings, even from those projects which are state-funded.
Ms Ali continued to say that the existence of divided communities was a consequence of failed government policy. Being highly critical of the previous government’s ‘Prevent’ agenda, she said that it was totally misconceived for the government to give money to religious leaders and groups to stop the spread of religious extremism within their communities, when they were the same people who had failed to stop that spread for the last 20 years.
Dr Hasan said that government policy that focused on faith as identity and raised the profile and power of religious groups led to increasing demands from minority faith groups to have special privileges and exceptions from the law and for more state-funded minority ‘faith’ schools.
After outlining the policy, social and legal landscape on communities, religion and multiculturalism, Mr Copson discussed the continuing need for disestablishment and for secularism as the fairest way for people to live in a plural society. Mr Copson emphasised the importance of having free speech and freedom of belief in society, and the right to manifest beliefs as far as that does not interfere with the rights of others, but said that people could not be equal in a country where one religion was established and people of different beliefs may be tolerated but never treated as equals, regardless of belief.
The Q&A session was really interactive between the audience and the panel, with discussion focusing on a range of topics. The meeting finished with a focus on the future, with an emphasis on the need for government policy to focus on individuals and not groups.
The BHA has had a successful year at the Conservative party conference and so has the Conservative Humanist Association, whose spokesman appeared on the BBC, ITN and Sky news criticising Conservative plans to introduce tax incentives for marriage.
We ‘tweeted’ updates during the meeting and did so throughout our time and activities at the Liberal Democrat, Labour and Conservative conferences. Follow us @BHANews.