Independent: Denmark's new burqa ban also covers beards and punishes people for living in 'ghettoes' – this isn't the mark of a secular society

Slowly but surely, Europe is undergoing a move towards restricting religious freedom for non-Christians. The Danish government and media have focused on the burqa ban to get public consent, but the real issue is how minorities are being treated as second-class citizens.  [...]

Here’s how Sukhraj Singh, a Sikh man living in Denmark, describes it: “This proposal also enables the police to define the zones where they have the power to issue double punishments. These will be called ‘special punishment zones’. This policy is inherently unjust. It unequivocally targets and punishes people for simply being born into ethnic minority and low income households.” [...]

Let’s call a spade a spade. The controversy over burqas, burkinis and beards isn’t really about clothing. It’s about the fear that immigrants might retain their non-Christian identities even while living in Western countries. But rather than aid integration, all bans like these do it reinforce the view that minorities are second-class citizens. It will make many feel more criminalised, and alienate them from the justice system and the fellow people they’re supposed to be integrating with. [...]

These bans imply that public expressions of faith are inherently dangerous for a modern secular society. In fact, the opposite is true. Allowing Muslims and Sikhs to be proud of their country gives them the freedom to practice their religion and at the same time see themselves as Danish or French. Restricting them says there is one rule for Christians and another one for everyone else. That is not the hallmark of a secular society.

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BBC4 Beyond Belief: Time

For the Christian world, January 1st is New Years' Day but for many religious communities it is not a particularly auspicious day because religious calendars differ and, consequently, different religions celebrate the beginning of their New Year on different dates. The difference in religious calendars is just one way in which religions disagree about the nature of time. Some, notably Christianity, Judaism and Islam think it is linear; that time began at the moment of creation and is leading us to the End. However, Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs believe that time is cyclical; that it goes round in an unceasing circle of birth, death and re-incarnation. Does it matter? And does what we believe about time affect the way we live our lives? Joining Ernie Rea to discuss differing concepts of Time in religious traditions are Eleanor Nesbitt, Professor Emeritus in the Religions and Education Research Unit at the University of Warwick; Shayk Soheeb Saeed, an Academic and Quran scholar at the University of Edinburgh where he is also the Muslim Chaplain; and Dr Andrew Crome, Lecturer in Early Modern History at Manchester Metropolitan University. Ernie also talks to Richard D Lewis - the author of 'When Cultures Collide' - who talks about the novel approach to time keeping held by the people of Madagascar.

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MapPorn: Religions, Map of Euro-Asia 2017

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BBC4 Beyond Belief: Begging

Is it a religious duty to give to beggars?

If you go into the centre of a city like Yangon or Bangkok, you will also come across people begging. Among them will be fine robed Buddhist monks with their begging bowls. They're highly respected members of society, following the tradition of religious mendicancy. What differentiates them from what we know as street beggars? What should inform our decision on whether or not to give?

Joining Ernie to discuss religious and moral attitudes to Begging are Jon Kuhrt, Chief Executive of the West London Mission; Eleanor Nesbitt, Professor Emerita from the University of Warwick and founder-member of the Punjab Research Group, and Dr Andrew Skilton, Senior Research Fellow in Buddhism at Kings College London.

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BBC4: Will my Sikh father come to my gay wedding?

Gubs has already told his Sikh dad that he is gay, and his father eventually managed to accept it. But it looks like a wedding is just one step too far. When Gubs told his dad that he was getting married, his father initially said he wanted nothing to do with it, but with just a few weeks to go it is still unclear whether or not he will attend.

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Al Jazeera: The decline of Afghanistan's Hindu and Sikh communities

Afghanistan's history is full of such anecdotes and lore about a substantial thriving community of Hindus and Sikhs who have called this country their home over the centuries.

"There is a place in Jalalabad where it is believed Guru Nanak visited in the 15th century and is very sacred to the Sikhs in Afghanistan," says Rawail Singh, an Afghan Sikh civil rights activist, adding that Jalalabad, to the east of Kabul, continues to have a substantial Sikh population.

But, sociologists note, the population of Hindu and Sikh minorities has seen a drastic decline over the past several decades.

"If you go through the evidence and data from the 1970s to date, you will be able to see how drastically their population has fallen," says Ehsan Shayegan, an Afghan researcher with Porsesh Research and Studies Organization studying the minority religions of Kabul.

"In the 70s, there were around 700,000 Hindus and Sikhs, and now they are estimated to be less than 7,000," Shayegan says.

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BBC4 Beyond Belief: Hair

A person's hair is one of the few visible indicators we might have about their religion. A long beard, for example, can be a powerful symbol of devotion for many Muslims, Jews and Christians. In Orthodox Jewish communities, married women wear a wig or hat rather than expose their hair in public. Sikhs consider hair to be so special that it can't ever be cut. Some of these practices are based on rules written in texts from long ago. So what is their relevance today? Why do some communities continue to hold on these rituals? Are they on the increase or in decline in British society?

Ernie Rea discusses the connection between hair and religious belief with Dr Christopher Oldstone-Moore, author of "Of Beards and Men: The Revealing History of Facial Hair"' Dr Jasjit Singh, an expert in religious and cultural identity from the University of Leeds; and Rabbi Dr Barbara Borts, a Reform Rabbi and expert on women and Judaism.

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