Sunday, August 12, 2012

Sectarian Scotland : SNP to tackle root problems of ‘Catholic Bashing’ & sectarian hatred with £116K funding for school plays

euscotchurchSNP tackle anti-Catholic bigotry & church desecrations with school plays & destruction of hate crime statistics. FROM the same SNP Scottish Government who authorised the Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) to destroy years of sectarian crime statistics so as to avoid public shock at the scale of the problem, a new policy to tackle sectarian bigotry & hatred has been announced by Community Safety Minister Roseanna Cunningham in the form of funding for a school play & a ‘spirituality’ festival. The latest move by the SNP forms part of a charm offensive to calm fears expressed in the predominantly Catholic EU over Scotland’s sectarian problem and the extent to which it has been covered up, seemingly at the highest levels of Government.

The Scottish Government issued a media release yesterday claiming the new project, involving forty school pupils to devise a stage play will educate the next generation of Scots.

Ms Cunningham sought maximum publicity for her announcement, made while attending "Scotland's Apartheid: Can we heal the green and orange sectarian divide?" as part of the “Festival of Spirituality and Peace”. The minister also announced £9,000 of public money to be handed over to the “Festival of Spirituality and Peace” to run a series of events on sectarianism, emblazoned with SNP logos & pro-independence voting campaigns.

Scottish Government Press Release : Funding announced to tackle bigotry

Communities Minister Roseanna Cunningham said: “Hatred of any kind has no place in modern Scotland and we need to do everything we can to stop it wherever and whenever it occurs, whilst tackling the root causes. We need to develop a broad set of actions to tackle it in different ways across society, from grassroots projects in communities, through to education and other initiatives which address the root causes of sectarianism. There is already some fantastic work taking place in communities across the country and we want to build on that success.

Ms Cunningham continued : “The work the Citizens Theatre are doing working with schools to educate the next generation of young Scots has been widely acclaimed and I am delighted this funding will help roll it out to South Lanarkshire. I hope the same success we’ve seen in Glasgow can be replicated in other areas of Scotland and projects like this are so important.

“Similarly, the funding for the Festival of Spirituality and Peace to run a series of events on sectarianism can help challenge attitudes and send out a strong message that sectarianism is never acceptable, never excusable. Sectarianism has ruined the lives of too many people and too many communities for far long enough. Working with organisations and communities across the country, we are determined to take wide-ranging action society to eradicate it once and for all. True change will only come about when we all take a stand against sectarianism and do our part in the fight against bigotry and hatred.”

However, the SNP’s policy on tackling sectarian bigotry & religious hatred in Scotland appears to be anything but genuine, where previously Scottish Law Reporter covered the destruction of the sectarian data by the Crown Office, here : SECTARIAN SCOTLAND COVER-UP : Crown Office admits it destroyed sectarian offences data ‘showing majority of crimes were against Catholics’.

The data on sectarian offences was ordered to be destroyed after Professor Tom Devine urged msps during a session of the Scottish Parliament’s Justice Committee (click Professor Tom Devine speaking on Crown Office sectarian data analysis to watch video clip)to request sight of the now destroyed hate crime statistics for further study.

Today, a leading critic of the Scottish Government’s policies on sectarianism in Scotland rubbished Ms Cunningham's claims the latest funding award would tackle root problems of sectarianism.

He said : “If Mr Salmond and the SNP are serious about tackling the root problems of sectarianism in Scotland, no Orange Order march will ever again be allowed to take place on Scottish soil.”

The Scottish Government was unavailable for any further comment.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

We are born with a clean slate until our environment creates ideas. Certain ideas are embedded in religious institutions.

They become ideologies which create difference. And the latter without toleration becomes sectarianism.

Similarly ideas about the skin become racism. I heard a person say once he disliked black people. I said if you had a fatal heart condition and the only surgeon available to operate was black what would you do. That shut him up.

We are all the same, it is the idiots that create all of the unnecessary problems.

Anonymous said...

Good on the SNP, but they do not want to stop lawyers ruining the people who elected them.

Anonymous said...

Aye Alex you do live in cloud cuckoo land don't ya!

School plays on bigotry who pays attention to this any more when people are getting flung out their houses by your bloody pals the bankers?

How many SNP snouts are getting the 116K public money anyway? What a larf!

Anonymous said...

What play is it?

Cinderella? LOL!

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a pitiful exercise in closing the stable door long after Scotland's dirty little secret is long known the world over.

Anyone who wants to understand just how prevalent protestant prejudice against catholics is in Scotland - and not least in the little parish of Edinburgh - need do no more than spend a few moments viewing the BBC video at;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtb-pGE1ABQ

Anonymous said...

Yes I would like to see Herr Salmond stand himself in front of an Orange parade and stop it.What follows next would bring a tear to me eye-not!

As for the "predominantly catholic" EU well aren't they all broke anyway?

Brendan M said...

I cant for the life of me see how can the "root problems of sectarianism" can be blamed on the Orange Order

No one is forced into the Orange Order - their beliefs are forced upon no one

I suggest the supposed 'top critic" has a look at the Apartheid schooling system where children are separated from their friends and force fed the beliefs of specific religion from the age of 5

This is where the real root of sectarianism lies

Anonymous said...

Salmond has no chance. He would have to take babies away from their parents like the Nazi'a did. All children would have to be brought up without religion, with the same ideas.

And even then difference would eventually kick in a some point. The Priest, the Minister they do not have to believe what they teach. They are under a contract with their employers just like teachers. The Bible is the clergyman's ciriculum.

And I think sectarianism is good for religious leaders because it reinforces their positions and jobs. The Protestant looks at the Catholics and vice versa. How many of them study and critically evaluate the teachings of their own clergy? Sectarianism is the result of a lack of thinking and people absorbing ideas like a sponge absorbs water. When you are calling each other names stop and look to your own clergy. Are they poor? No but you are reinforcing their positions by focusing on the opposite group.

It is not about God it is about money and power.

Anonymous said...

I suggest the supposed 'top critic" has a look at the Apartheid schooling system where children are separated from their friends and force fed the beliefs of specific religion from the age of 5.
================================
Yes just like Hitler did with Nazi schooling which blamed the Jews for Germany's losing the First World War.

How many children do you see in Scotland with Celtic or Rangers tops on. It starts with clergy, the families adopt the ideology and then without tolerence it becomes sectarianism. Give them a label to fight over.

A member of the Jesuit Order of the Catholic Church once wrote "give me a boy till he is five and I will give you the man".

You wrote "I cant for the life of me see how can the root problems of sectarianism can be blamed on the Orange Order." I agree with you because all religious movements are to blame.

Religion is the problem because those who dissented and became Protestants created conflicting ideologies. And you know what many of these idiots do not think. Many of them live or marry a partner who is a member of the religion they detest. How many Protestants marry Catholics and vice versa? They are idiots, and then they fight over which schools the kids go to and the sorry mess starts all over again.

Sectarianism is the result of low intelligence. The marriage arrangements of many Catholics and Protestants proves my point, they marry each other and don't like each others religious beliefs.

Idiots indeed.