Faith and a Future

Jacob was taught that he should give up on his dreams. That because he’s a Christian, all he’ll ever be is a cleaner. Jose Gabriel missed out on vital years of education because his Protestant family were thrown out of their village and not permitted to register him at a new school.

Across the world, children are denied an education simply because of their religion or belief. We’re launching a bold new campaign, Faith and a Future, tackling the discrimination and abuse that’s seen in schools from Pakistan to Mexico, from Nigeria to Burma. Together we want to ensure that no child is punished for their faith. Will you join us?

Schools have enormous power – to broaden young minds, to introduce them to new ideas, to show them the world’s endless possibilities. But all too often that power is used to teach hate, to tell children that they’re worth nothing, and to tell other children that they should look down on them. That’s what Jacob endured at school in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Gurinder Singh, a Sikh boy, was beaten by his teacher twice a week from age four to age six. As he got older the torture took a different form, as the constant pressure to convert became more than he could cope with. He dropped out of school with no qualifications.

These injustices happen to children of all faiths, all over the world. Christian children in Nigeria are forced to take Muslim names just to get into school. Rohingya Muslim children in Burma see their schools knocked down. Baha’i students in Iran are expelled from university if their religious beliefs are discovered. This is a truly global problem.

Stopping hatred before it starts

“Education is our best hope for tackling fundamentalism.” These are the words of Michelle Chaudhry, one of our long-term partners in Pakistan. Michelle is devastated by the religious fundamentalism that has rocked her country time and again, with terrorism claiming hundreds of lives over the past few years alone. And she recognises that to stop this tide of violence, we need to tackle hatred before it can take root.

So many of the wrongs we see in our world today are rooted in hatred that’s learned in a child’s early years. As Nelson Mandela said, ‘No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.’

So what can I do?

Lend your voice to our new campaign! Faith and a Future is fighting religious discrimination in schools around the world. Our research is truly groundbreaking – no one else has effectively tackled this issue. In the first half of 2018 we’re focusing on change in Pakistan. Together with supporters like you, we’re campaigning for biased textbooks to be rewritten, for discrimination in school admission to be removed, and for abuse to be dealt with effectively.

The first step is to make sure the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office knows how urgent this issue is, by signing the petition we’ve enclosed with this newsletter. We’ll be launching the report in parliament at the end of February – please invite your MP to the event. You can do this quickly and easily at faithandafuture.com

Sign the petition and speak up for Gurinder, who’s scared to go to school. For Jacob, who was told to forget his dreams. For Jose Gabriel, who’s missing out on vital years of learning. For every child, and their right to both faith and a future.

• Go to faithandafuture.com to invite your MP to the launch of the Faith and a Future report.