12 February 2010

Muslim police? Christian doctors? Sikh judges? What happened to neutrality in the delivery of public services?

Now we have “Hindu police” and “Christian doctors” and “Muslim scouts” and “Catholic teachers”. In all these instances, surely the religion of the person being referred to should be of secondary importance. Instead it appears to be the primary definer.

Doesn’t anyone see the danger of encouraging “Muslim police officers” rather than simply “police officers”? How, for instance, will people in the Jewish community react to officers who want to define themselves as “Muslim police” and vice versa? See here for an instance of it. How will “Sikh police officers” deal with Hindus when we know there is a history of conflict between their communities? [National Secular Society] Read more