Religious Symbolism and Discrimination

Religious Symbolism and Discrimination was undertaken as an AHRC Connected Communities project between February and October 2012, by Dr Daniel Hill and Dr Daniel Whistler. In the light of recent public and media controversy over the rights of individuals to wear religious symbols (such as crosses, niqābs, karas, and chastity rings) in the public sphere, its core research question was, ‘when, if ever, is it acceptable to prohibit the use of religious symbols?’. This question was answered by means of a two-fold research methodology: a philosophical analysis of the concepts underlying debates on religious discrimination, and participatory research into how these concepts are employed by religious and legal practitioners and policy makers.

The impact of such active research participation is attested by an end-of-project questionnaire completed by participants, including significant stakeholders in local faith-based communities. Respondents overwhelmingly stated that participation had improved their understanding of recent public discussion and legal debate surrounding religious discrimination.

Three months after the end of the project, a quarter of participants claimed that they had put the findings into practice outside the project. One significant example of such a change in practice took place at Network Rail's Professional Equalities Training for Workforce-Development Specialists in York in July 2012, where substantial use of the project's findings was made.

After engaging with the disseminated findings, David Perfect from the Equality and Human Rights Commission called the report “very useful” for two policy projects on religion or belief being undertaken by the EHRC in 2013. Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Bishop of Rochester, spoke of the report as a resource that should be “available to the employers, the employment tribunals and the courts” making decisions on the protection of religious symbols.