East London Humanists

Its official. The UK has elected the most openly non-religious House of Commons in history.

Roughly 40% of MPs chose to take the secular affirmation instead of a religious oath during their swearing-in ceremony last week. That’s up from 24% after the 2019 election. They include the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, half the Cabinet and all four Green MPs.

Humanists welcome the House more closely reflecting the faith profile of the UK.  According to the British Social Attitudes Survey (2021) over half the population have no religion. We have come a long way since the election of the first openly atheist MP, Charles Bradlaugh, in 1880. His refusal to take the religious oath led to his arrest and imprisonment. He only finally took his seat in 1888 following a change in the law.

Starmer is the seventh non-religious Prime Minister, so far as we can tell. The first was a Liberal, Lloyd George. Ramsay Macdonald (Labour) was the first PM to take the non-religious oath – exactly 100 years ago in 1924. He was active in the Union of Ethical Societies, the forerunner of Humanists UK. Next were two Conservatives, Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill. The latter, an agnostic, regarded religion as superstition. When contemplating death, he told his doctor he ‘did not believe in another world, only black velvet– eternal sleep.’ 

Following WWII PM Clement Atlee (Labour) put his humanism into practice, establishing the NHS alongside other sweeping reforms.  James Callaghan is believed to have abandoned his Baptist faith. He was PM from 1976-79, over 50 years before Starmer.

Labour pledged in their manifesto to modernise parliament. The pointless relic of different oaths for different religions and beliefs is itself ripe for reform. This matters. A 2023 academic study showed that jurors who took a religious oath were more likely to convict a suspect who took a non-religious oath. Humanists will be pressing the new ministers in the Ministry of Justice to act on this. Having just one oath puts everyone on an equal footing.

Another archaism is the right of Christian MPs to book a seat ahead of debates using their prayer card. This systematically discriminates against non-religious MPs in a commons chamber without enough seats to go round. Just a couple of examples of change needed to make institutions and practices across the board fit for a modern, plural democracy. 

Paul Kaufman
Chairperson, East London Humanists

The upcoming election raises new prospects for social reform. Humanists are keen to work with whoever comes to power to achieve progress.

The scope for change is illustrated by the remarkable number of draft Bills actively supported by Humanists UK at the time the election was announced. Unfortunately, four sets of reform fell by the wayside following the announcement. All had a reasonable chance of success. One would have de-criminalised abortion and replaced the Victorian era penal approach with a civil framework. This against a backdrop of efforts by the anti-choice movement, often funded by US evangelicals, to turn the clock back. Another reform, thwarted when the same Bill fell, would have banned the discredited and harmful practice of conversion therapy.

The Children not in School Bill also fell. This Private Member’s bill was supported by the Government. It aimed to address the estimated 6000 children enrolled at illegal schools, many run by religious fundamentalists.  Finally, the private member’s Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) Bill was abandoned. It too was supported by the Government. It would have established a Special Envoy on FoRB dedicated to promoting freedom of religion or belief worldwide and raising awareness of persecution based on, for example, blasphemy laws.

One success, passed following the election announcement, was The Media Act, which repealed requirements for public service broadcasters to include religious programming. This coincided, incidentally, with the latest census data released in May which shows that in Scotland those ticking the ‘no religion’ box rose from 36% in 2011 to 51% in 2022. The Act’s impact will be monitored to ensure that humanism now receives a fair level of coverage.

This is just a snapshot. There are many other areas on which Humanists UK will continue to press for reform, including compulsory Christian worship in state schools, discriminatory admission and employment practices by religious schools, the law on assisted dying, and the legalisation of humanist weddings. When Parliament dissolved the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group comprised over 100 members across the party spectrum in both Houses. We look forward to seeing what the new influx of MPs will bring. One way or another, Humanists will continue to work to ensure this country’s institutions and laws befit a modern, diverse society, and for a fairer, kinder, more tolerant world.

Paul Kaufman
Chairperson, East London Humanists

Mainstream party leaders speak admirably about the importance of social harmony. But some have a blind spot when it comes to the crucial question of children’s education. The latest Government proposal to allow 100% religious discrimination in all state schools will increase religious and racial division at a time when integration and cohesion have never been more important.

Humanists UK has condemned the move, alongside religious leaders, parliamentarians, and leading educationalists.  In the House of Lords (7 May) former Conservative Education Secretary Lord Baker called it ‘an absurd proposal that should not feature anywhere in the manifesto of the Conservative party’. Lord Storey, Liberal Democrat education spokesperson asked ’Does the minister not think it important that in all our schools we should have children of different faiths?’

Former Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, the co-leaders of the Green Party, the Chief Officer of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, Liz Slade, former government integration and community cohesion tsar, and many other prominent public figures are signatories to a letter organised by Humanists UK addressed to the Education Secretary. It urges against removal of the so-called ‘50% cap,’ pointing out that ‘Removing the restriction on state-funded faith schools to cherry pick students by religion would be a backwards step that risks increasing division and inequality, further entrenching religious selection in our education system, and undermining the principle of inclusivity.

England & Wales is already an outlier. Only 4 of the 36 OECD countries allow state schools to discriminate on religious grounds. The others are Estonia, Ireland (where attempts are being made to phase it out), and Israel.

The 50% cap, introduced by Labour in 2007, is a compromise. Ideally there would be no religious discrimination at all. Evidence shows it goes hand in hand with racial segregation, economic segregation, and disadvantaging of disabled and care-experienced children. All major players in education and think tanks are aware of this, and it is notable that the cap was retained by the coalition Government in 2010. This proposed lurch backwards comes only after lobbying by the Catholic church. The proposals are out for public consultation and should be strenuously opposed by everyone who values children of different faiths and beliefs learning and playing together and its importance to social cohesion. 

Paul Kaufman, Chairperson, East London Humanists

The ‘prayer ban’ at Michaela Community School in Brent has hit the headlines again following the recent High Court judgement. The controversy highlights the pressing need to reform our archaic laws on religious worship for state-educated children.

Michaela school was taken to Court in January by a Muslim pupil. She argued that its ban on prayer rituals was a ‘breach of her right to freedom to manifest her religious beliefs.’ This was rejected in the ruling on 16 April on the grounds that the pupil had ‘…chosen the School knowing of its strict regime; on the evidence she was able to move to a suitable school which would allow her to pray at lunchtime; and, in any event, she was able to perform Qada prayers in order to mitigate the fact that she was not able to pray at the allotted time.’

The judge further ruled that the disadvantage to Muslim pupils at the school caused by its policy was outweighed by its aim of promoting the interests of the school community as a whole, including Muslim pupils.

Currently the only law which specifically governs religious practice in English state schools is the requirement for a daily act of Christian worship. Such a law is found nowhere else in the world. It has been condemned by the UN as a breach of the Rights of the Child. Calls for abolition have come from the National Governance Association, most teaching unions, and peers in a debate in the House of Lords in January.  In 2019 Humanists UK supported parents in Oxford in their successful High Court challenge to mandatory collective worship at their child’s school on human rights grounds. The Government needs to give serious thought to creating clear rules and guidance fit for today’s world. These would protect children’s freedom of religion or belief while making sure our education system is fair and inclusive to all. Mandatory collective worship should be replaced with an inclusive form of assembly that makes all pupils feel welcomed, while making reasonable accommodation for those who want to worship privately where it doesn’t infringe the rights of others. Otherwise, we will inevitably see more cases being brought and resentment continuing to build within our school system.

Paul Kaufman
Chairperson, East London Humanists

The recent report that the Gospel Oak to Barking Line is to be renamed the ‘Suffragette Line’ is great news.  Celebrating these heroines from East London helps put recent fatuous remarks by Home Secretary James Cleverly into perspective. Like his predecessors, who resisted the fight for women’s suffrage, he thinks there are just too many demonstrations.

Cleverly said pro-Palestine protesters have “made their point.” He questioned whether holding regular marches “adds value” to their calls for an immediate ceasefire given the UK government is in disagreement. (Times 28 Feb)

Cleverly did not attempt to make a case for stopping the national demonstrations due to any violence or threat to public order. All ten, held over five months, have been peaceful. The number of arrests proportionately has been less than for a typical Glastonbury Festival. He expresses concern instead about the cost.

 I have participated in several of these peace marches in a personal capacity as part of the substantial Jewish Bloc, which includes both religious Jews and secular ones like me. Jewish support for an immediate ceasefire has been shamefully underreported. The response from Muslim participants has invariably been warm and appreciative. Those like former Home Secretary Suella Braverman who smear them as hate marches have clearly not been on one.

The policing cost, estimated at £25million so far, is a small price to pay for exercising a basic democratic right. It is insignificant compared say to the estimated £240million spent so far on the flawed Rwanda scheme. The cost is probably more than is necessary. Any display of antisemitism is vile and should be dealt with. But the routes are saturated with CCTV cameras. Given the demonstrations have been peaceful, it is questionable whether the large number of police deployed on the ground are needed.

Freedom of speech and assembly are time-honoured democratic means for urging change in government policy. It is unreasonable that the Home Secretary should seek to diminish these rights and expect those calling for an immediate ceasefire to reduce their protests as the death and suffering mount. The suffragette movement was formed in 1903 because demure pleas for change had fallen on deaf ears for decades. It took many years of demonstrations before they won the vote for women. They were on the right side of history. Our Home Secretary is not. ENDS. Paul Kaufman, Chairperson, East London Humanists

A row over prayers at a West London school has hit the headlines. But there’s a bigger picture that should be grabbing our attention.

The row concerns Britain’s so-called ‘strictest headteacher’, Katharine Birbalsingh, taken to court over a ban on Muslim students praying during lunchtime. Many schools and workplaces have quite rightly reached a reasonable compromise, enabling Muslims to pray in a way that doesn’t unduly intrude on others. The case should cast light on why private prayer was not accommodated at this school, and provide useful guidance. Whatever the reason, nothing justifies the reported harassment and violent threats against school staff by religious bullies.

But the West London dispute is a storm in a teacup compared to the scale of religious division and unfairness elsewhere in our education system. This goes back to the 19^th century when the Christian establishment won the argument on religion being embedded in the first state schools. We still have an archaic law, completely unsuited to today’s Britain, requiring every state school to hold a daily act of Christian worship. Some schools don’t comply. But many who do sideline and discriminate against children of different or no faith. I still remember being left out of assemblies as a child and the feeling of being ‘othered.’ Assemblies are an important part of every school day, and should be inclusive of all children.

I’m often invited by enlightened local schools to speak about humanism, not to promote my beliefs, but to help children understand the views of people like me who are not religious and who now form around half the population. Pupils usually find these sessions valuable and thought-provoking, whatever their belief. But in many schools Religious Education remains narrow, faith-based, and dominated by Christianity.

State-funded faith schools, dividing children based on their parents’ religion, have proliferated. And the scourge of illegal schools with an exceptionally narrow religious agenda has still not been addressed, despite Government promises. There are several in East London.   A modern education should include learning about all beliefs, and freedom of belief and expression should be respected, provided it causes no harm to others.  But freedom and respect also means empowering children to work out for themselves what to believe, free from indoctrination or having other’s beliefs imposed on them. ENDS

Paul Kaufman, Chairperson East London Humanists

Reform is badly needed to give the terminally ill their last human right – freedom to choose how and where to die. Opinion piece Barking & Dagenham Post 11.1.24 (below). Also for publication Romford Recorder, Ilford Recorder, Docklands and East London Advertiser, Newham Recorder.

Opinion piece published Barking & Dagenham Post, Romford Recorder, Docklands & East London Advertiser November/December 2023, transcribed below

These are grim times, but reading about a star birdwatcher cheered me up! The story of David Lindo, recently appointed a patron of Humanists UK, challenges stereotypes. It inspires at a time when action is urgently needed to save our natural world.

David was brought up in West London, the son of Jamaican immigrants. In his autobiography, The Urban Birder, David describes his fascination with nature as a child, particularly birds. He honed his skills and knowledge in London’s urban wastelands and parks. He mentions ‘bunking off’ to East London to expand his birdwatching horizons. David is now a TV presenter and international authority on ornithology. He has written extensively on urban birdwatching around the world.

During his journey David encountered ridicule and dismissiveness from people on all sides who didn’t think birdwatching was a black person’s thing. Thankfully, he enjoyed the support of many others. Identifying as a Humanist also counters any lazy assumption that being black means you are likely to be religious.

The ‘State of Nature Report,’ published on 28 September, charts the catastrophic decline in biodiversity across the UK. For example, of 293 bird species assessed, 43% are threatened with extinction from the UK. 60 nature organisations collaborated on this authoritative annual survey. War has understandably been dominating the news, along with the Covid enquiry and other stories of dysfunction in our world. But this should not eclipse coverage of the natural world’s collapse and the threats to all life as we know it.

David’s work, like that of David Attenborough, incidentally also a humanist, highlights how humans are part of nature’s web. All lives and fates are intertwined. Projects at, for example, Canary Wharf and the square mile’s Tower 42, have identified an astonishing variety of birds, from honey buzzards to wrynecks. Literally hundreds of species fly over and live in London, if only you know where and how to look for them. And why wouldn’t they?

It’s hard to be cheerful when so much depressing news abounds. But inspirational lives help keep hope alive. Much bad news, such as war, poverty, species loss and climate change, is down to human action or inaction. The positive is that humans have the power to turn things around if the will is there.

Paul Kaufman
Chairperson, East London Humanists

Opinion piece Ilford Recorder 16 November 2023

I took the decision to wear a white poppy alongside my red poppy when I took part in Sunday’s Remembrance Day service at Ilford War Memorial.

A red poppy shows respect for the Royal British Legion and those who have given their lives in war.  But many may not appreciate that wearing a white poppy is a proud tradition going back 90 years.

The first white poppies were produced in 1933 by members of the Women’s Cooperative Guild. Many had lost family and friends in World War l. They wanted to hold onto the key message of Remembrance Day: ‘Never again.’ This goes beyond mere commemoration. It aims to ensure those who made such sacrifices did not do so in vain.

White poppies stand for three things:

Remembrance of all victims, including civilians, people of every stripe, refugees, and those killed in wars happening now as well as in the past; Emphasising the importance of resisting war and its causes and questioning its justification; Highlighting the devastating human cost of war and the urgency of finding non-violent solutions.

My contribution, as the Humanist representative, was spoken alongside contributions from local religious and political leaders, and the Christian chaplain who leads the service. I was given the privilege of writing the words I use when I took part in my first Redbridge Remembrance Day service as humanist chaplain to the then mayor in 2021: “Every human life is precious, whatever our religion or belief. Let us use this day to remind ourselves of our common humanity, and pledge to do all we can to live alongside each other in peace and to avoid the scourge of war.”

The ‘elephant in the room’ at this year’s services was the Gaza conflict. Our political leaders have rightly condemned the Hamas atrocities. Their vicious Charter targets me both because I’m a Jew and because I’m an atheist.  I am equally horrified by the killing and maiming of civilians and destruction of civilian infrastructure inflicted by Israel. It pains me that the same leaders have, at the time of writing this piece, failed to put any limit on the number of civilians, children, UN staff, charity workers and journalists they are prepared to see killed in the onslaught.

I question whether they have grasped the key message of Remembrance Day.

Paul Kaufman
Chairperson East London Humanists

Opinion piece published in Barking & Dagenham Post, Docklands and East London Advertiser and Ilford Recorder November 2023.

Where do you stand on the ghastly Gaza war? As a Humanist I am on the side of peace. And I will always side with the children and all the other innocent victims of war.

Every Humanist will have their own journey to nailing the colours of this non-religious ethical worldview to their mast. My ‘epiphany’ was the invasion of Iraq in 2001. In my early life I laboured under the false assumption that, however slowly and fitfully, progress towards a world based on compassion, fairness and rational beliefs was somehow inevitable. The sight of President Bush and PM Blair praying together for guidance brought me up with a start. Apparently, their decision to start that war, without UN approval, was part-founded on their belief that it had God’s blessing. For some of us their catastrophic decision was an important milestone in the breakdown of a rule-based world order.

Religious zealotry plays an important role in the Gaza conflict. The Hamas Charter is a long antisemitic diatribe and assertion that it’s God’s will that the land be ruled under Islamic law. On the other hand, there are those in Israel who rely on ancient scriptures to justify seizing land from Palestinians who have lived there for centuries. I’m an East End born Jew, albeit not religious. My grandparents obtained refuge here from pogroms in Eastern Europe. It strikes me as anomalous that I am automatically entitled to settle in Israel, despite my lack of connection for two millennia, whereas dispossessed Palestinians are not. Some 700,000 Palestinian refugees were created by the 1948 war alone.

This is not an anti-religious rant. Rabbi Hillel, who lived 2000 years ago, when asked to explain the Jewish holy book famously replied “That which is hateful unto you, do not do to your neighbour. This is the whole of the Torah; the rest is commentary.”  It’s what Humanists call the Golden Rule. It’s also a central tenet of Islam. My fervent hope is that all religious leaders assert the importance of this value.

War crimes have been committed on both sides and all must be condemned. There are no easy solutions. However, for me the war underlines the importance of working for a world based on both compassion and reason.

Paul Kaufman
Chairperson, East London Humanists