Suffolk Humanists

For a good life, without religion

Public money for faith

Posted by Margaret on Wednesday, Aug 20, 2008

FaithNetEast is an information and learning hub for faith communities in the East of England region. Funded by the Faith Communities Capacity Building Fund in the Home Office, it is hosted by the East of England Faiths Council (EEFC) and is an initiative run in partnership with Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge.

Its purpose is to bring together people and organisations from all faiths in the region in a network for sharing information, learning from one another, developing skills and activities and working together.

The primary tool for this is the ‘Faiths Base’, a database of thousands of faith communities across the region which can be searched from this website. It has been compiled and is maintained by Anglia Ruskin University with funding from the Regional Equalities Forum through the Change Up initiative. It contains contact details and summary information about activities (where available). Faiths Base can be searched by location, by organisation or by faith tradition.

The East of England Faiths Council…

… has been formed to facilitate the faiths of the region in making input to regional strategy and issues, and to act as a contact point for regional governance and other public bodies. It is the nominating body for the faiths representative on the East of England Regional Assembly.

A “faiths representative”? Presumably, s/he comes under the “culture” heading?

The money for the “capacity building fund” comes from the public purse. There’s no equivalent ‘Non-faith communities Capacity Building Fund’, which makes it blatantly discriminatory.

The Faith Communities Capacity Building Fund is being used to support a variety of religious organisations across the UK. For example; last month, the Government was asked, “Which Muslim organisations have received funding from the Faith Communities Capacity Building Fund since January 2006?” The answer was a long list. It would take some time to discover what the money was used for, and what activities these organisations offer.

If this sort of thing makes you angry, why not join us and one or both or the national organisations that campaign against privileges for faith communities?

The British Humanist Association

The National Secular Society

Tags: East+of+England+Faiths+Council, East+Anglia, Religious+privilege

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