The British Humanist Association (BHA) has today published a new report entitled, “The ‘Religion or Belief’ Equality Strand in Law and Policy: Current Implications for Equalities & Human Rights”.
The BHA commissioned BRAP to research the report. In my role as Director of Policy & Research at BRAP I wrote much of section 4.0 ‘Demography’. In relation to this section, the Executive Summary states:
The notion that census data, as currently collected, can accurately reveal the religious attitudes of contemporary Britain is highly problematic. The nature of the question used – ‘What is your religion?’ – gives an inaccurate picture of the religious or non-religious beliefs of census respondents. And yet the data is repeatedly used to underpin policy making. This makes it much more than simply an ‘academic’ issue. The direct use of census data to inform government policy has implications for the inclusiveness of policy on the ‘religion or belief’ strand as a whole. A debate regarding future questions on ‘religion or belief’ in the census to inform future policy is a pressing need.
The read the findings in their entirety, you can download a pdf version of the full report here.
Saturday 14th February 2009 marks the 20th anniversary of the Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa against the British author Salman Rushdie and the publication of his novel, ‘The Satanic Verses’. Based upon stories about the life of the Prophet Muhammad, the novel caused controversy due to it being interpreted by some Muslims as blasphemous and offensive. Not only against the Prophet himself but also against some of the central tenets of Islam.
The Labour Prime Minister: Gordon Brown (



Justifying Terror, Justifying Oppression: How Wrong is Israel & the West’s ‘War on Terror’?
Tags: 9/11, al-Qaeda, Arab states, civil liberties, Colonel Lior Lotan, Comment is Free, David Miliband, democracy, Downing Street, European Union, Gaza Strip, George W Bush, global relations, Guardian, human rights, IDF, Institute for Counter-Terrorism, international relations, Islamic radicalism, Islamic terrorism, Israel, Israeli Defence Force, Mark tran, military, Palestine, Palestinians, politics, Presidential Medal of Freedom, radicalism, terror, terrorism, terrorists, Tony Blair, United States, Usama bin Laden, war on terror
Acknowledging that it had ‘defined the terrain’ since the attacks of 9/11, Miliband argued that it was wrong on several counts. That it:
He went on to conclude:
Continue reading ‘Justifying Terror, Justifying Oppression: How Wrong is Israel & the West’s ‘War on Terror’?’