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Editorial
Help to free Iranian blogger Soheil Arabi
 Over 200 secular activists and groups have called for today, Sunday 3 October, to be recognised as International #SoheilDay in solidarity with Soheil Arabi, an atheist political prisoner in Iran.
The campaign is run by Maryam Namazie and Jimmy Bangash of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain. Michael Nugent and Jane Donnelly of Atheist Ireland are among the signatories.
Soheil is a 36-year-old Iranian blogger with a young daughter. He was arrested in 2013 for ‘insulting the Prophet of Islam’ in Facebook posts.
He was initially sentenced to death. Due to public pressure, his sentence was reduced but he continues to face multiple additional charges in attempts to silence him.
In August of this year, his lawyer Tweeted that Soheil had been sentenced to yet another 2 years in prison because of his outspoken advocacy for atheism and prisoner rights.
On this day, Sunday 3 October, we urge you to publicly highlight his plight, contact your TDs and Senators, write protest letters, and Tweet #FreeSoheil #SoheilDay #SoheilArabi.
Please help Atheist Ireland to highlight cases like this, and support our ongooing work promoting secular education and secular laws in Ireland, by joining Atheist Ireland as a member. We are a voluntary body with no paid staff, and we depend on our members to continue our work. You can join here.
– Secular Sunday Editorial Team
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Éire Aindiach
Éire Aindiach
Chun ár gcuid feachtais a leathnú agus a neartú, tá sé beartaithe ag Éire Aindiach níos mó úsáid a bhaint as an Ghaeilge.
Ba mhaith linn meitheal a eagrú, chun cuidiú le:
- Polasaithe agus feachtais Éire Aindiach a phlé ar an raidió nó ar an teilifís
- Cuidiú le doiciméid ghaeilge a scríobh
- Bualadh le polaiteoirí chun stocaireacht a dhéanamh
Táimid i mbun aistriúcháin a dhéanamh ar dhoiciméid polasaí faoi láthair, agus teastaíonn cabhair uainn le aistriúchán agus profáil. Más maith leat bheith páirteach san iarracht seo, cur ríomhphost chugainn ag gaeilge@atheist.ie.
English translation:
To broaden and strengthen our campaigns, Atheist Ireland have undertaken to make more use of the Irish language.
We are looking to assemble a group of volunteers, to help with:
- Discussing our policies and campaigns on radio or tv
- Helping to write documents in Irish
- Meeting with politicians to lobby them
We are in the process of translating policy documents at the moment, and we need some help with translating and proofreading. If you would like to assist with this effort, please email us at gaeilge@atheist.ie.
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Atheist Ireland News
Free Iranian blogger Soheil Arabi
 Over 200 secular activists and groups have called for today, Sunday 3 October, to be recognised as International #SoheilDay in solidarity with Soheil Arabi, an atheist political prisoner in Iran.
The campaign is run by Maryam Namazie and Jimmy Bangash of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain. Michael Nugent and Jane Donnelly of Atheist Ireland are among the signatories.
Other signatories include philosopher AC Grayling, Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Zara Kay of Faithless Hijabi, Gulalai Ismail of Aware Girls, author Taslima Nasrin, and artist Victoria Gugenheim.
You can add your signature here.
Who is Soheil Arabi?
Soheil is a 36-year-old Iranian blogger with a young daughter. He was arrested in 2013 for ‘insulting the Prophet of Islam’ in Facebook posts.
He was initially sentenced to death. Due to public pressure, his sentence was reduced but he continues to face multiple additional charges in attempts to silence him.
Soheil was originally sentenced to death, which was revised on appeal to seven and a half years in prison plus thirty lashes and two years of religious studies as well as a two-year ban from travelling abroad.
He then had another three years added to his sentence, because of his brave open letters highlighting injustice and torture, inhumane prison conditions including the denial of medical care, and the unlawful holding of political prisoners in a ward with inmates convicted of violent crimes.
In August of this year, his lawyer Tweeted that Soheil had been sentenced to yet another 2 years in prison for ‘spreading propaganda with the intention of disturbing public opinion,’ because of his outspoken advocacy for atheism and prisoner rights.
What can you do?
On this day, Sunday 3 October, we urge you to publicly highlight his plight, to contact your TDs and Senators, write protest letters, and Tweet #FreeSoheil #SoheilDay #SoheilArabi.
You can also add your signature to the appeal here.
Please also send public messages of solidarity to Soheil and his mother Farangis Mazloum who has been targeted for defending her detained son.
Two years ago Ireland removed our law against blasphemy, after a ten-year campaign led by Atheist Ireland and other secularists and human rights campaigners around the world.
The Islamic States at the United Nations used to point to the Irish law as an example of a western democracy having a law against blasphemy. They wanted the wording of our law to be introduced around the world.
The Irish law against blasphemy is now gone. Islamic States can no longer use it to bolster their abuses of human rights against their own people.
Soheil has a human right to freedom of thought, conscience, belief, and expression. He must be released immediately as must all political prisoners and those imprisoned because of their conscience and belief.
Video appeal from seven years ago
Here is a video appeal that Maryam Namazie and Fariborz Pooya recorded seven years ago, in December 2014, after Soheil was arrested.
*|YOUTUBE: [$vid=DSZARNztILY]|*
Read more…
The proposed new bank holiday should be inclusive not religious
 If the Government is to introduce a new bank holiday, it should not be named after or associated with any religious or atheistic figure or belief. It should simply be an inclusive public holiday for everybody, regardless of their religious beliefs or nonreligious philosophical convictions.
In particular, if it is in February, it should not be associated with Saint Brigid, who supposedly wove a Christian cross out of rushes to convert a pagan chieftain into Christianity as he was dying. That is exactly the wrong message to convey about the multi-cultural Ireland of today.
Politicians constantly tell us with regard to religious influence on state activities, such as the Catholic church running our state-funded schools and hospitals, that if we were starting from scratch that we would not put in place what is happening now.
RTE implausibly tells us that the Angelus is not the Angelus, despite it obviously being the Angelus, and patronisingly suggests that non-Catholics can feel included by reflecting on life during a Catholic call to prayer. That religious privilege should also end.
More than half of our bank holidays are simply named after the day or month in which they occur: New Years Day, May Bank Holiday, June Bank Holiday, August Bank Holiday, and October Bank Holiday. The other four have historical religious names: Saint Patrick, Easter, Christmas, and Saint Stephen.
As Ireland is moving in a more inclusive and pluralist direction, where we should all be treated equally regardless of our beliefs, let’s make sure that we don’t take a step backwards by associating a new public holiday with any any religious or atheistic figure or belief. Read online…
Religious school ethos prevents objective Relationships and Sexuality Education
 On Monday Atheist Ireland attended a webinar by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment about developments in Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) at primary level and Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE at second level). The NCCA is currently updating these courses.
The Minister for Education Norma Foley and the NCCA recognise that all children have a right to objective sex education. but at this stage it seems clear they won’t legally guarantee that right and enforce it, and they are not being transparent in relation to the facts of the issue.
We should not have to put up with this behaviour by a Minister and a public body, particularly as they are legally obliged to enhance transparency and accountability in the making of decisions in the education system and give practical effect to the constitutional rights of children (Section 6 Education Act 1998).
This article addresses:
- What is the problem?
- What did Atheist Ireland ask at the webinar?
- Catholic ethos and Sex Education
- The NCCA and Minister Foley are not being transparent
- The NCCA accepts that ethos is an issue with ERBE
- Ethos is an issue in the delivery of SPHE/RSE
1. What is the problem?
Schools and teachers are legally obliged to uphold the ethos of the Patron. As the vast majority of schools have a Catholic ethos, teachers are legally obliged to deliver Relationships and sexuality education through the lens/ethos of the Catholic Church.
What is needed is to amend the Education Act 1998, so that ethos can no longer be used as a barrier to the effective, objective and factual teaching of the RSE and SPHE curriculum to which every student is entitled.
If they refuse to do this, it will be left up to teachers to defy the Education Act 1998, Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act, and their employer, in order to deliver sex education objectively to all children. This is an impossible position to put teachers in, especially young teachers.
It is also worth mentioning that there are many teachers who want to deliver curriculum RSE/SPHE through the ethos of the Catholic church. They will be happy to ignore the constitutional conscience rights of parents and children.
2. What did Atheist Ireland ask at the webinar?
Here are the questions that Atheist Ireland asked the NCCA at the webinar on Monday:
- The Oireachtas Joint Education Committee has recommended that the Education Act 1998 be amended, so that ethos can no longer be used as a barrier to the effective, objective and factual teaching of the RSE and SPHE curriculum to which every student is entitled. Teachers are legally obliged to uphold the ethos of the Patron, so do you agree that despite your intention that it will be inclusive, you simply cannot guarantee that because of ethos?
- The Minister has already said that that ethos does have an impact on how RSE and SPHE are delivered. Your response does not cover this issue because teachers are legally obliged to uphold the ethos of schools. For example the Catholic Bishops have introduced Flourish. Do you agree with the Oireachtas Education Committee that the Education Act 1998 should be amended, so that ethos can no longer be used as a barrier to the effective, objective and factual teaching of the RSE and SPHE curriculum to which every student is entitled?
- Regarding the right to not attend the subject, schools are still forcing children into curriculum religion at second level, even though there is an explicit constitutional right to not attend that. Why do you think it will be different with RSE/SPHE?
3. Catholic ethos and Sex Education
The NCCA did not select our questions to answer, and they said that they will address unanswered questions on their website. But they did answer a differently-phrased question related to ethos, and they said that in their consultations on RSE and SPHE, teachers said that ethos was not an issue in the delivery of RSE/SPHE.
The decision whether curriculum RSE/SPHE is delivered through the ethos of schools is not the legal decision of teachers but of the Patron (Section 15-2(b) Education Act 1998). The Catholic Bishops who hold all the legal cards are adamant that RSE and SPHE must be delivered according to their ethos.
They even have Guidelines in place to ensure that this happens on the ground. These Guidelines include:
“Quite apart from information about ‘the facts of life’, children should be taught from the beginning to recognise, at their own level, that sexuality is a gift of God. They should learn to appreciate that being a girl or being a boy is something for which they should be thankful to God. They should learn that human beings are created male and female in the image of God; sexual difference and complementarity are part of the variety of God’s gifts.”
Those Guidelines also state that schools are not obliged to ask parents to sign a permission slip to allow their children to attend:
“Because RSE is an integral part of both the RE curriculum in a Catholic primary school and of the SPHE curriculum, schools are not required to ask parents to sign a permission slip to allow their child to attend lessons on the sensitive issues in RSE.”
This means that the vast majority of children are just taught the RSE and SPHE through a Catholic ethos, unless their parents are aware of how ethos influences curriculum RSE/SPHE and manage to exercise their right for their children to not attend.
As the majority of schools operate under a Catholic patron, it is Catholic sex education that the vast majority of children will receive. Read more…
Know your rights
 Teachers and schools have no right to question students about their beliefs or put them in a position where they are obliged directly or indirectly to reveal them.
Nor can they request that parents give reasons for seeking to withdraw their child from curriculum religion.
We come across Admission Policies where schools ask reasons from parents who seek to exercise their constitutional right to remove their child from religion classes.
Schools and teachers are not trained to uphold the right to freedom of religion and belief.
Calling concerned teachers
If you are a teacher and concerned about unwanted religious influence contact Chris at teachers@atheist.ie
List of Atheist Ireland Submissions
Buy this book “Is My Family Odd About Gods?”
**Schools Special Offer**
Atheist Ireland are offering the book ‘Is my family odd about gods‘ free (excluding postage and packaging). This means that you can get this book for the total price of 10 euro. This offer is aimed at families with school going children, who would like to read this book. This offer is limited to one book per family unit and for postage within Ireland only. Read more…
Have you noticed that your school and your teachers may tell you one thing about religion, while some of your friends and family may have different ideas about god?
If you think that this is a little odd, then this book is for you. Buy this book here.
Lessons about Atheism
Atheist Ireland has published a set of free lesson plans about atheism for children aged 8 and up. We welcome feedback, which we will use to develop the lessons. You can download the lesson plans here
 Be Good without Gods
Atheist Ireland ‘Good Without Gods’ Kiva team members have made loans of $34,275 to 1187 entrepreneurs in the developing world. You can join the team here. Before you chose a loan, make sure you do not support religious groups. You can check the loan partner’s social and secular rating here.
Notme.ie
Atheist Ireland’s ‘notme.ie‘ is a place where people can publicly renounce the religion of their childhood. Currently there are 1875 symbolic defections. Many share their reasons for making a public symbolic defection which you can read here.
Petition on Schools Equality PACT
Atheist Ireland currently runs one petition – The Schools Equality PACT. This seeks to reform religious discrimination in state-funded schools. Currently this stands at 4,084 Help us reach it’s target of 5000. Please sign and share this petition if you haven’t already done so. Thank you.
Tell us what you think
Have you any feedback that you would like to give us on the Secular Sunday newsletter. What are we getting right? What could we improve on? Is there something you would like to see included? Drop us an email at secularsunday@atheist.ie.
Please consider joining or re-joining Atheist Ireland
Atheist Ireland is an entirely volunteer run organisation. We receive no grants or government funding to continue our campaign work. We rely entirely on membership fess and donations.
Annual membership is nominal; €25 waged, €10 unwaged/student and €40 for family membership. Please consider becoming a member. Membership means:
- You can help to build an ethical and secular Ireland.
- You have a say in determining policy and electing officers.
- You can attend members meetings and our AGM.
- You will have access to our members only Facebook group
- Your membership fee will go towards supporting our many campaigns.
You can join Atheist Ireland here.
Thank you for your continued support
Atheist Ireland Committee
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Opinion and Media
Material on atheism, secularism, human rights,politics,science etc. collected from media and the blogosphere from Ireland and beyond; used without permission, compensation, liability, guarantee or implied endorsement. We aim to include a variety of diverse opinions and viewpoints.
Blogs & Opinions
National
Campaign to abolish blasphemy laws in northern ireland
By Humanists UK
Around the world, blasphemy laws are used to harass, victimise and discriminate against people from religion or belief minorities. They directly impede people’s right to freedom or belief. That’s why we want Northern Ireland to catch-up with the rest of the UK, and repeal its blasphemy laws. Read more…
Dromore redress scheme over clerical abuse unlikely to become a template
By Patsy McGarry
The unprecedented step by the Catholic diocese of Dromore to set up its own redress scheme for victims of clerical abuse in the diocese has set a new bar for everyone else in the church. It may well be emulated by other Irish dioceses and even, where relevant, by some religious congregations, but that appears unlikely. Read more…
Belgian government to fund abortions for Polish women following near-total ban
By Daniel Tilles
Belgium’s government will provide funding for women in Poland to obtain abortions abroad. The decision follows a Polish constitutional court ruling introducing a near-total ban on abortion in the country, which went into force at the start of this year.
“Access to abortion is a fundamental right that every democratic state must ensure,” says Sarah Schlitz, the Belgian secretary of state for gender equality, equal opportunity and diversity. “When the state fails to protect its citizens, civil society must step in.”. Read more…
The nonreligious are increasingly accepted — but some Americans still have moral unease about atheism
By Penny Edgell, and Wendy Cadge
At the end of August 2021, Harvard University’s organization of chaplains unanimously elected Greg Epstein as president. Epstein – the atheist, humanist author of “Good Without God” – will be responsible for coordinating the school’s more than 40 chaplains, who represent a broad range of religious backgrounds. Read more…
Heres why Gen Z may be least religious in U.S. history, according to 5 young Arizonans
By BrieAnna J. Frank
Sami Al-Asady met an atheist for the first time in eighth grade. That interaction, he said, “awakened the possibility that I don’t have to subscribe to a faith.” Al-Asady’s parents are war refugees who experienced religious violence.
His father grew up in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and bore witness to conflict between Sunnis and Shias. His mother is from Bosnia, which saw the massacre of thousands of Muslims by Serbian troops in the 1990s. Read more…
Pakistan court sentences woman school principal to death for committing blasphemy
By India Today Web Desk
A woman school teacher was sentenced to death in Pakistan after she claimed to be the next prophet after Prophet Muhammad. The district and sessions court also slapped a fine of PKR 5,000 ($29) on Salma Tanvir, principal of a private school in Nishtar Colony. Read more…
Catholic hospital ban on tubal ligations challenged as discriminatory
By UPI reporter
The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan has filed complaints with state and federal agencies alleging a Catholic hospital’s refusal to grant a woman an exemption from religious directives that ban tubal sterilizations is discriminatory and a denial of her right to “adequate and appropriate care.” Read more…
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