Parents speak out

From The Herald Sun

Parents lobby Victorian Government to ban Bible in classrooms

By Susie O'Brien 
February 04, 2012

The billboard in Bulleen. Supplied

PARENTS are stepping up pressure on the Education Department to end religious education in state schools amid claims it is making children isolated and fearful. 

A massive billboard has been erected in Bulleen claiming state schools "are not church playgrounds".

It says: "Special religious instruction divides our children".

The billboard was erected by parent-run lobby group FIRIS (Fairness in Religion in Schools), which is calling on education authorities to change the law so that "special religious instruction" is no longer offered in state schools.

Victorian state school children have to attend 30 minutes of special religious instruction unless their parents decline on their behalf.

Those who do not attend have to be supervised by another teacher outside the classroom where the religious lesson is taking place.

It comes ahead of a VCAT case challenging the validity of religious classes in state schools.

Full Story:   http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/parents-lobby-victorian-government-to-ban-bible-in-classrooms/story-fn7x8me2-1226262178252

How NOT To Do It, Lesson 3

Submitted by Graham

From the Sydney Morning Herald website


Life in Israel an ultra-orthodox paradox 

By  Hamish McDonald, Asia-Pacific editor
January 21, 2012

Protest ... police struggle face ultra-orthodox Jews at a rally

in Jerusalem. Photo: Reuters

Back in Israel after a 13-year interval, the changes are highly visible, the mood vastly different. Were there ever this many ultra-orthodox Jews in the streets of Jerusalem, flocking to the Western Wall of the ancient temple on Shabbat eve - some of them resplendent dudes in their black stockings, frock coats, fur or felt hats, and curly ringlets?

Was the coastal corridor such a monument to the high-tech industry that now contributes 40 per cent of Israel's exports, switches start-up entrepreneur for doctor in Jewish mothers' ambitions for their sons, and fosters such a hedonistic lifestyle that Tel Aviv has just been voted the best ''gay city'' of 2011?

In the 20 years of peace negotiations with the Palestinians, has the outlook for settlement ever been so bleak and pessimistic?

Within and without, the few givens and certainties about Israel and its surrounding region are dissolving.


Full Article:   http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/life-in-israel-an-ultraorthodox-paradox-20120120-1qa2k.html

Playing with stats

Submitted by Graham

From the Sydney Morning Herald website

More schools opting for secular workers instead of chaplains

By Dan Harrison
January 10, 2012

"Chaplains and student welfare workers are a great asset to schools" ...

Peter Garrett, School Education Minister. Photo: Dean Sewell

MORE than 200 schools that have had a federal government-funded chaplain plan to hire a secular welfare worker instead, taking advantage of changes to the $222 million scheme.

Before the School Education Minister, Peter Garrett, announced the changes in September, schools could only appoint a welfare worker if they could prove that no chaplain was available.

Government figures show that of 2512 schools which have reapplied for funding, 208, or 8 per cent, have proposed to employ a welfare worker; 2236, or 89 per cent, indicated they wanted a chaplain or religious pastoral care worker; while 68, or 3 per cent, said they had not decided which they wanted.

A discussion paper released last year to inform a review of the program showed that 0.01 per cent of workers employed under the program had no religious affiliation, yet more than 18 per cent of the population says it has no religion.

Welfare workers were most popular in the ACT, where 28 per cent of schools that were reapplying for funding opted for one instead of a chaplain.

In NSW, 14 per cent of schools with federal government-funded chaplains said they wanted a secular welfare worker instead. Eighty-three per cent said they would continue to employ a chaplain, while 3 per cent had not decided between a welfare worker and chaplain.

Full Story:   http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/more-schools-opting-for-secular-workers-instead-of-chaplains-20120109-1prs2.html

Canada's new Office Of Religious Freedom

Submitted by Meg

From the Globe and Mail website

It’s already a happy new year for religious extremists

By Gerald Caplan
Friday, Jan. 06, 2012

Palestinian police officers intervene in a fight between Greek Orthodox and Armenian

clergymen during the cleaning of the Church Of The Nativity in Bethlehem on 28th December, 2011.

Photo: Bernat Armangue / AP

The Harper government is about to create a new Office of Religious Freedom, designed to champion religious freedom around the world. For those who have questioned, especially in a time of deep austerity, the need for such an office, activities within and among the world’s three great monotheistic religion during the recent Holy Days – in order of birth Judaism, Christianity and Islam – provide a ready answer. There is much work for Canada to do.


In the United States, for example, large numbers of conservative Catholics and evangelicals joined forces in a search for an appropriate Republican candidate to take on Barack Obama, an alien Muslim from Kenya. God-fearing Republicans of all denominations cheered for capital punishment (the more the merrier), applauded the possibility that a man without health insurance might die and booed a gay soldier serving his nation in Iraq. 

Across the Middle East and throughout immigrant communities in Western Europe, many Sunni and Shiite Muslims united in embracing The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a fabricated anti-Semitic document that invented a Jewish conspiracy to rule the world and for generations was treated as gospel by many Christians regardless of denomination.

In Israel, Jews across the vast spectrum of Judaism, from the most secular to the ultra-orthodox, came together in a determination never to recognize the just rights of the Palestinian people.

It is true, however, that such welcome signs of unity have not been the entire story of the season. In fact, one might say that faith-driven conflict has had a very creative few weeks.

Full Article:   http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/second-reading/gerald-caplan/its-already-a-happy-new-year-for-religious-extremists/article2294260/singlepage/#articlecontent


Related Article:   http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/conservatives-laying-groundwork-for-office-of-religious-freedom/article2288479/

Human Rights > Religious Rights

Submitted by Graham

From the Sydney Morning Herald website

Faith in equality a must

By Leslie Cannold
January 2, 2012

Illustration: Robin Cowcher

Secular authorities need to ensure they win fights with zealots over the rights of women.

LAST week in Israel, a news story shocked the nation. It concerned Naama Margolis, an Orthodox Jewish girl, who was shown crying and quaking at the prospect of taking the 800-metre walk from her home to school. The reason for her distress? The harassment and intimidation she has been subjected to by a roving band of ultra-Orthodox men who felt that her long-sleeved shirt and below-knee-length skirt were insufficiently "modest".

The men called Naama a slut. They spat on her and made her fear for her safety. Naama Margolis is eight years old.

The story has gone global. But so far few of the male "experts" who have been asked to comment appear to have a clue what is truly at stake, not just for women or Israel, but for all pluralist secular democracies.

What Naama's story reveals is the unavoidable clash between the sexist edicts of religious extremists and the state's guarantee of full human rights to all its female citizens.

Behind this clash is a far older and more fundamental one. Namely, who will decide how women will live - the church or the state?


Full Article:   http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/faith-in-equality-a-must-20120101-1ph7l.html

Indo punks targeted by religious police

From the ABC News Website

Punk's not dead, it's just gone to moral rehab

December 15, 2011

Photo: An Indonesian police woman cuts the hair of a

detained female punk. (AFP: Chaideer Mahyuddin )

Indonesian sharia police are "morally rehabilitating" more than 60 young punk rock fans in Aceh province on Sumatra island, saying the youths are tarnishing the province's image.

Since being arrested at a punk rock concert in the provincial capital Banda Aceh on Saturday night, 59 male and five female punk rock fans have been forced to have their hair cut, bathe in a lake, change clothes and pray.

"We feared that the Islamic sharia law implemented in this province will be tainted by their activities," Banda Aceh deputy mayor Illiza Sa'aduddin Djamal, who ordered the arrests, said.

"We hope that by sending them to rehabilitation they will eventually repent."

Hundreds of Indonesian punk fans came from around the country to attend the concert, organised to raise money for orphans.

Police stormed the venue and arrested fans sporting mohawks, tattoos, tight jeans and chains, who were on Tuesday taken to a nearby town to undergo a 10-day moral rehabilitation camp run by police.


Full Story:   http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-14/punk-rockers-rehabilitated-under-islamic-law/3731442

The right thing to do

From the ABC News website


Bishop overturns school snub of lesbian couple
By Natalie Whiting

Updated December 14, 2011 11:47:38


A bishop has intervened to overturn a Catholic primary school's decision to refuse to enrol a lesbian couple's daughter.

The couple, who do not want to be identified, had tried to enrol their child at Sacred Heart Primary School at Broken Hill in far western New South Wales.

They say the principal told them their relationship was the reason the application had been turned down.

The acting bishop for the Wilcannia-Forbes diocese, Kevin Manning, says he is appalled by that decision.

"There's no way in the world one can penalise a child for what his or her parents do," he said.

"To penalise a five year old child because her parents are living in a homosexual relationship is just quite wrong and I've been in touch with both the school principal and also the parish priests."


Full Story:   http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-14/bishop-overturns-school-snub-of-lesbian-couple/3730738


Unfortunately, the bishop responsible for the change isn't clearly identified in the story.


15% percent of the funding of a school doesn't "buy" you the right to inflict your own personal or religious bigotry onto others. And if you think that whole concept of "buying" an opportunity to discriminate is abhorrent in the first place, you're not alone.