(Bang) Up the Pope?

Faith and secularism today

Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the UK – the first papal visit for 28 years – has dominated the headlines ever since it was announced back in March. Much debate has kicked up about whether or not he should be allowed to visit, with campaigners such as Johann Hari making a case for performing a citizen’s arrest because of the child abuse scandals that have plagued the Catholic church. Secular campaign group “Protest the Pope” also lists his crimes against humanity as including opposition to condom use and abortion, and apparent support for gender and faith-based discrimination in schools and workplaces worldwide.

At the same time Pastor Terry Jones provoked international controversy by threatening to burn the Quran on the 9th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, while copies of the Muslim holy book were torn up in New York and Washington, and burned in Tennessee and Kansas. There has been much argument over whether it is appropriate to build a mosque near Ground Zero with demonstrators in lower Manhattan holding banners with the slogans “No Mosque at Ground Zero”, “The more Islam, the less freedom”, “No Sharia” and “No Surrender”. This comes shortly after the Belgian and French parliaments voted to ban the burqa, with similar legislation being debated across Europe.

How can we explain what looks like anti-Muslim and anti-Catholic sentiments? Are we more secular or simply more intolerant of religious belief? With expressions of religious belief seemingly on the rise across the West how should secularists respond? Are these protests meaningful expressions of political opposition to the “opiate of the masses” or simply childish reactions against perceived superstition and irrationalism?