The discussion regarding Muslim women wearing the veil has continued to rage in the British media. This seemingly minor issue appears to be on the way to becoming a defining point in race relations and religious tolerance in Britain.

The debate largely surrounds the question of cultural integration: To what extent should people from other cultures blend in with the norms of the culture in which they live? Is the niqab (full facial coverage except for the eyes) a religious obligation to be respected, or is it a statement of refusal to become part of British society?

The responses have been as diverse as British society, much of it hysterical and reactionary. One reactionary response comes from the doyen of The Guardian, Polly Toynbee, an avowed atheist and secularist who believes religion is the root of all evil. Her viewpoint can be read here: link In this view, it is incontestable that anything that offends Western feminist views is a sin, and therefore an evil to be expunged from society. The problem with these benighted Muslim women is that they don’t realise they are oppressed. And it is not only Muslim women oppressed by Muslim men, but Christian men have always oppressed women. They all need to be freed from their darkness, poor women.

Aren’t we all glad that people like Toynbee have achieved the ultimate level of enlightenment, and all we need to do is repent and believe in their gospel and we shall be saved?

Toynbee’s vision of the way forward is benevolent and tolerant state in which any religious expression, which is hypocritical by definition, is banned from public discourse. Only the enlightened will be allowed to teach our children.

As one whose children were subjected to this tolerant approach (the de facto manner in which religion is actually taught in this country), and who deals with the real-life consequences of the secular approach to education on the streets of my city, I am not comforted by this viewpoint.
The secularist/atheist approach has been tried in the 20th century, and failed. The common accusation that religion is the cause of all wars falls flat in the face of Hitler’s paganist, and Stalin and Mao Tse Tung’s atheistic wars.

(A Brian Robinson of Essex link thinks that the fact that Stalin studied in an Orthodox seminary and Pol Pot was born a Buddhist makes Religion (his capital) the source of these tyrannies! So, presumably Brian Robinson’s viewpoint is also to be blamed on Religion… Having said this, there is something to be learned from the background of those who speak and act in such extreme ways to religion—including Polly Toynbee. They often can be seen to be reactionary, going to the opposite extreme of that which they decry. Hardly reasoned, balanced, or mature reflection.)

A rational and balanced response to Toynbee appeared in the Guardian later in the week. [Another aside: some may think that The Guardian appears in the Gazelle rather frequently. It does so for a number of reasons; one, it constantly criticises Christianity, and the Gazelle responds; two, it actually discusses religious matters openly, unlike American newspapers who seldom offer such reflection, seemingly as incapable as the Democrats to understand how to do so; thirdly, The Guardian welcomes and prints responses to opinion columns.] Stephen Beer, vice chair of the Christian Socialist Movement, offers an excellent riposte here: link

The problem with the secularist argument, which Beer highlights, is that it refuses to allow a voice to the vast majority of the population in a most undemocratic, irrational, and despotic manner. Toynbee, et al, may wish religion would merely disappear by being ignored, but it will not happen. Nor should it.

One further aside. Many American Christians may be put off by the idea of a Christian Socialist Movement, since so much of America considers ‘socialism’ to be an exact synonym for ‘communism’, which all Americans know to be godless and evil. Interestingly, Evangelical Christianity in Britain has a long and prominent tradition of being socialist to one degree or another, going back to the Methodist chapels which were the seedbed for trade union ‘chapels’.

The true roots of Evangelicalism are in socialism.