Ignore Islam, ‘ex-Muslims’ urge

Dominic Casciani reports for the BBC that “A group saying it represents large numbers of “ex-Muslims” is urging policy-makers to ignore the faith. Campaigner Maryam Namazie said 25 founding members were being named at the body’s Westminster launch, representing people scared to speak. The Council of ex-Muslims believes it represents the views of a majority of secular-minded Muslims in Europe….”

Would we be better off without religion?

Atheists and believers are daggers drawn, each accusing the other of fundamentalism, the former blaming religion for the state of the world and concerned that religion continues to thrive despite the advance of science – the latter blaming loss of faith in Europe for moral impoverishment and lack of social cohesion. BBC Radio 4’s The Moral Maze asks if we would be better off without religion? View message board discussing the programme 

Calls to include atheism in religious education

UK think tank Institute for Public Policy Research is urging the Government to include atheism in a national framework being drawn up for the teaching of religious education in schools, suggesting “religious education” should be re-named “religious, philosophical and moral education”. Comments posted on the BBC website included these (not necessarily representative) two that illustrate the sort of mentality that this project is seeking into challenge:”morality without the underpinning of religion is like a ship without a compass, or a tailor without a yard stick”

“it’s about time that children were made aware of this dangerous ideology [atheism], which has done so much damage to the moral foundations of modern British society”. Read all comments