johndcgow wrote:
To many ordinary football fans in Scotland, especially but not exclusively the Old Firm fans, the ‘war’ against sectarianism in football seems utterly bizarre. For these fans, especially the older fans, five years in prison for singing a song is unfathomable. More than this, the very fact that a song at a football match can lead to your arrest is treated with complete incomprehension. Nevertheless, this is the state of play today. In Scotland at least, much of the criminalisation of football fans has come in the guise of the fight against sectarianism.
Anti-sectarianism has become part of the fabric of life in Scotland, not just in politics, law, and football, but also in education. In schools, anti-sectarianism is now described as something that is at the heart of the new Curriculum for Excellence. ‘Education,’ the Scottish government notes, ‘can play a pivotal role in challenging sectarian attitudes and religious intolerance’. As such, anti-sectarian initiatives are crucial for developing ‘informed responsible citizens’.
It is not only children who need awareness training about sectarianism. In prisons this attempt to develop ‘positive attitudes’ was given a boost in 2011 when the funding for anti-sectarian training of prisoners was doubled. The success of this re-education process would be judged by illustrating the changed behaviour of those receiving the training. For example, prisoners would be encouraged to understand that cracking sectarian jokes was harmful, something that it was claimed had been successful in 50 percent of cases so far (Scotland on Sunday 25th September 2011). By November of 2011 it was announced that anti-sectarian training would also be available for the staff of the Scottish Parliament (Herald on Sunday 20th November 2011).
To be against sectarianism is a new norm in Scottish society, an unquestioned good, something that can unproblematically become part of school curriculums and the training of prisoners, even parliamentary staff. Sectarianism is also something that all politicians in parliament oppose and indeed something that has come to be vocally denounced by Scottish governments for the last decade. As Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader explained at a debate in parliament, every single one of her MSPs is opposed to sectarianism.
At one level, opposition to sectarianism can be seen as a good thing. But to understand what is going on, we have to ask why now? Why and how has being against sectarianism become the new moral absolute, the new good, and something that the authorities feel needs to become part and parcel of our education.
This section of your excellent article is quite illuminating, in my opinion. Sectarianism is the new bête noir in Scotland's rather inward looking policies. It is apparently such a heinous crime that no half-baked suggestion that hints at its presence can be ignored. Vague, quango-like groups such as FARE and Nil-by-Mouth are sustained by claims of horrendous levels of abuse: from their perspective, the more the merrier as it justifies their existence and allows them to become the vociferous champions of the offended. I remain to be convinced that these Groups have taken an even-handed approach to followers of Celtic and Rangers and feel they act as oxygen to the smouldering embers of genuine sectarianism.
This approach is even allowed to impact upon free speech. This has got to be the most egregious aspect of this whole media- & political-driven bandwagon: the rather pathetic issue of sectarianism is being used to hamper our greatest democratic prize i.e. the ability to speak freely on any subject short of promoting violence. Certainly, there will be times when I dislike intensely what I hear someone say on a subject but I'd fully defend their right to do so. Loss of this freedom, no matter how trivial, is a dangerous precedent: powerful groups can then start to control what opinions we can voice, can't help but think there are quite a number of bodies who'd love this power in "Free Caledonia"?
On this specific point about sectarianism becoming an integral part of the Scottish Schools' Curriculum, I'd make three points:
1. Good grief! Try and teach our youngsters the basics of literacy & numeracy plus a foreign language before traipsing off into this trivial nonsense.
2. Who will set what is taught on such a sensitive issue? One can easily imagine how easy it would be for one side of a divide to be portrayed as an oppressed minority and the other as intrinsic haters to be despised. We all know that it can be very easy to indoctrinate a young child.
3. My views i.e. (a) all our children should be educated to the highest possible standard to allow our country to compete internationally and (b) I regard faith-based schools as an act of apartheid that set up foci of divisions that perpetuate sectarianism in a community. Hence all children in an area should be educated and grow up together.
Were I to express them, would be immediately labelled as "sectarian", by powerful lobby-groups, simply as it would lead to an end of state-sponsored education of children from catholic families separately.
What would be said about separate schooling in our new proposed curriculum?
