Harry Perry has written the First Person column in today's Leicester Mercury:
Free speech, yes, but must it be so loud?
Harry Perry, of Leicester Secular Society, has his own say on the city's modern speakers' corner
A reprint of a 1958 article in the Mercury referred to a Sunday morning Speakers' Corner, in the Market Place. Orators from different persuasions would regale onlookers with their particular truth – even some from Leicester Secular Society. And all without artificial amplification.
Speakers' Corner has long since ended, but I ventured into the city centre on a sunny Saturday to see how free speech is faring today.
The first encounter was by the Haymarket – seven Christians singing in Chinese to the accompaniment of a chap on a fiddle.
It was easy on the ear so I stopped to listen for a minute. This brought me to the attention of the choir and a chorister broke away to offer me … eternal salvation. I explained I was an atheist and way beyond redemption.
Next stop was a Muslim stall near the Clock Tower. The African chap here was keen to debate. I struggled to hear, being hampered by the PA system blaring out behind me.
I think he explained he didn't belong to a mosque, believing them all to be wrong in their telling of Mohammed's message. We soon got to the inevitable, "how did the universe start?"
For the sake of argument I said "The Big Bang". He said: "Yes, and that's what Allah told Mohammed, too"!
My eyebrows rose of their own accord. Pulling out his well-thumbed Koran he flicked to the relevant verse… which refers to the Earth appearing in a puff of smoke.
"There, he said, the Big Bang."
"A puff of smoke is hardly the Big Bang," I replied, and left to give my undivided attention to the Christians with the PA system.
I was offered another leaflet promising forgiveness and was told the group was made up of "Charismatics and Pentecostals". My new friend was unfazed by my declaration of atheism and invited me to a meeting. I declined, and dreaded to think what their PA system must be like within the confines of a closed room.
As I passed the Big TV on my way home I thought its manager could take a leaf out of the evangelists' book. It can be heard for only about 40 yards, while the evangelical sound waves travel far down High Street. Indeed, if loudness was any guide to truth they'd have a head start on the skyway to Heaven for sure.
What a wonderful thing free speech is – but guys, there is no correlation between volume and veracity, so why not turn the amp down – or dump it altogether?
Harry Perry is president of Leicester Secular Society
This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:
Leicester Secular Society in plea to cleebrity atheists to help raise £40,000
by Peter Warzynski
Celebrity atheists are being asked to help pay for the renovation of a society's headquarters.
Members of Leicester Secular Society are writing to 40 well-known people, including Richard Dawkins and Ricky Gervais, in a bid to raise £40,000 for the project.
The society is also appealing to local secularists to support the scheme to improve the Victorian building in Humberstone Gate.
Work will involve installing an accessible toilet, new kitchen, hearing loop, second fire exit and internal renovation.
The total cost is about £65,000, but the organisation has £25,000 in its reserves which it will use.
Harry Perry, president of the branch, said: "There are certain pressing problems on the ground floor where we have our meetings.
"We've appealed to about 40 celebrity atheists but I don't want to rely solely on them – we'll need our members to help us, too.
"The last census also identified that 24 per cent of the city are non-religious, so we're reaching out to them for help as well."
He said a number of attempts to secure funding had been unsuccessful and the organisation needed the full amount by the end of July.
"We approached the Heritage Lottery Fund, but it said there wasn't enough of a heritage aspect," said Mr Perry.
"The Big Lottery Fund turned us down, too, because it's too much about the building and not enough about the community.
"In fact, 95 per cent of sources of funding require we are a charity or a religious organisation and we're neither."
Leicester Secular Society has about 150 members and has used the grade-II-listed building for 130 years.
It hosts a variety of events, including talks, lectures and meetings by a number of organisations.
Leicester City Council has offered to look at ways of supporting the society with some of the renovation work.
Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said: "We'll help where we can with the project. In particular, we'd like it to include some work to the front of the building.
"The Secular Hall is a very important building in Leicester and unique one in the country.
"It has a proud history and is a place where people such as William Morris came to talk about not just secularism but society more generally."
Donate via their website at: www.leicestersecular society.org.uk
Harry Perry has written the First Person column in today's Leicester Mercury (which is not on the website):
Koran case shows flaw in the legislation
Secularist Harry Perry calls for the removal of the word "insulting" from part of the Public Order Act
Tearing
up a holy book is not an effective way to take issue with religion but the
right to free expression valued by jury members is so fundamental to our way of
life that it must be protected even when its exercise involves bad taste or
insult.
A
criminal prosecution was recently brought by Leicester’s Crown Prosecution
Service (CPS) against a man who publicly demonstrated his opposition to
religion by ripping up a Koran in public and throwing it to the ground.The
case ended with a hung jury and a decision by the CPS not to pursue it
further. The failure of the jury to reach a verdict reveals a
problem with the law.
Many
religions take it on themselves to seek to persuade people of other religions
or of no religion to convert. Dire consequences of failing to
believe in this or that god are often cited in these attempts. Likewise,
atheists sometimes seek to expose the fallacies in religion, hoping to persuade
people to give it up. They can all do this because what they are
seeking to change is a matter of personal conviction. With race,
gender, sexual orientation or disability the position is completely
different. You cannot persuade someone to change these
characteristics.
The
legislation that rightly protects people in these categories from being
harassed and abused or put in fear of their life on account of their
characteristics has been developed over recent decades. But the
addition of protection on grounds of religion more recently has brought with it
a threat to the right of free speech because the police and the CPS have not
got clear in their minds the qualitative difference involved. It is
because of this that a broad coalition, including religious opinion, is
currently trying to get Parliament to remove the word “insulting” from Section
5 of the Public Order Act as it has been used by the police in several
instances to silence critics of one or other persuasion.
There
is no special protection from insult or abuse on matters like politics,
vegetarianism, astrology, homeopathy, and so on, beyond that which ordinary
citizens expect purely in virtue of being a citizen.
The same should
apply to religious belief and non-belief.
Leicester
Secular Society is a “Freethought” organisation dedicated to the idea that the
best way to change people’s convictions is through the rational debate of
available evidence. People in Leicester who wish to show their
disagreement with others’ beliefs should normally do so in a calm and reasoned
way, showing respect for persons even when condemning or lampooning their ideas
or station. This is common courtesy and politeness, after all, and
exemplifies the kind of city and country that most of us would like our
children and grandchildren to inherit from us.
But
by the same token, those whose beliefs are challenged, even when done
discourteously, would be best advised to ‘turn the other cheek’ rather than
calling for prosecutions.
Harry Perry, Leicester Secular Society
Harry Perry's First Person column appears in today's Leicester Mercury (but not on the website):
Census shows the times they are a-changin'
Harry Perry, president of the Leicester Secular Society, gives his view on lessons from the census
As the new President of Leicester Secular Society, my particular interest in the 2011 Census has been data relating to religion and belief in Leicester. These stats are quite different from the national averages, revealing a city that is more diverse than most other places and, notably, where the four main belief categories (Christian; Non-religious; Muslim and Hind) are relatively evenly balanced, with a sizeable number of Sikhs too.
The new figures show that the number of Christians (of ALL denominations) is now down to only 32% of Leicester's population. Those without religion (atheists) are the second largest group with almost 23%, while Muslims check in at nearly 19% and Hindus at just over 15%, Sikhs are at about 4.5%. In other words, no single belief group is anywhere near dominant.
I believe this means that no spokesman for any single religion can be seen as a moral spokesman for the city. Each belief community has something to offer in this respect.
The key objective of Leicester Secular Society is to achieve a "separation of religion from the state". We have no desire to ban religion, worship of gods or religious rituals. These are matters of personal conscience and we will do as much as anybody to protect those fundamental rights.
Indeed in a world where religion often seeks to impose its dogmas on to society as a whole it is increasingly obvious that only a secular state can guarantee freedom of religion and belief for all.
We believe strongly that religion can divide people against each other, especially when national or local government gives favoured status to one belief over the rest.
This is why we have campaigned against the creation of ever-more publicly funded "faith" schools and have called for the ending of religious rituals in public bodies, like prayers in council meetings and the religious ceremony to welcome a new lord mayor.
This is why we believe that national and local celebrations of events like Remembrance Day for those killed in war should not be based on a specific religious ritual but on secular respect, reflecting that those who died had many different beliefs.
This is why we must question the financial privileges given to religious bodies, such as publicly funded chaplains in hospitals, prisons and armed forces. If the religious want them, then it is obvious who should pay.
In terms of policy making it is time that those who live good lives without religion were given proper respect with consultation alongside religious bodies.
We must stand by "one law for all". The new Census statistics must give all the city's policy-makers and opinion formers pause for thought.
Harry Perry, Leicester Secular Society
