Association of Muslim Lawyers - Religious Discrimination

Religious Discrimination

One of the main issues about which AML has been advising and lobbying for several years is the lack of anti-discrimination protection afforded to Muslims under English law. Until the 3 December 2003, there was no law in the UK against abuse and discriminatory treatment of Muslims based solely on their religion. The Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003 are now in force and afford some protection from religious discrimination in the work place. This development in the law has been due more to the implementation of the Employment Directive adopted under Article 13 of the Amsterdam Treaty in November 2000 than as a result of AML's efforts.

In all other spheres of life, including the provision of services, education and housing, religious discrimination is still not illegal. Representatives of the AML made detailed submissions to the House of Lords Select Committee on Religious Offences (whose report was published on 10 June 2003) who declined to make any recommendation that Muslims should be protected by law from incitement to religious hatred, or by an updated law of blasphemy which would apply just as much to Muslims as to Christians.

Some bodies, such as for example the Commission for Racial Equality and the Bar Council have written into their codes of practice an all encompassing anti-discrimination policy which includes the prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion as well as of race, sex and disability. After several requests by AML spanning a period of several years and spurred on by the Employment Directive, the Law Society reviewed and extended its anti-discrimination rule to include discrimination on the grounds of religion.

By virtue of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act 1998, the government is under a duty, by passing secondary legislation, to secure the basic rights of freedom of religion, freedom to practise one's religion and freedom to educate one's children in accordance with one's religion. Until recently, all political parties were united in attempting to pretend that religious discrimination is synonymous with racial discrimination, even though this is clearly not true – but now that the Muslim block vote can affect the outcome of both local and national elections, their leaders are beginning to adopt a more pragmatic approach and it is hoped that they may take the duty required by the Convention more seriously in the future.