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** Your daily media briefing - Friday 17 July
In the Media <[link removed]> is our daily collection of news and commentary related to secularism, available delivered to your inbox. You can also read the latest news <[link removed]> and opinion <[link removed]> and listen to our podcasts <[link removed]> on our website.
** Secularism in the media
* Campaign group to fight SNP's hate crime bill over free speech concerns - NSS quoted <[link removed]>
A new law designed to combat hate crime in Scotland poses a significant risk to free speech and could lead to playwrights, academics and newspaper columnists being prosecuted, a new coalition set up to fight the proposals has claimed. NSS chief executive Stephen Evans is quoted.
The Telegraph
* Scottish hate crime bill threatens free speech, Free to Disagree campaign group warns - NSS mentioned <[link removed]>
The new Free to Disagree campaign, supported by the former SNP deputy leader Jim Sillars, the National Secular Society and the Christian Institute pressure group, insists that expanding hate crime legislation risks criminalising speech "merely because it is deemed offensive".
The Times (£)
* NI clerics can conduct same-sex marriages if supported by church leaders <[link removed]>
Measures allowing same-sex marriages in churches in Northern Ireland if priests and ministers enjoy support from their governing bodies have become law.
Express and Star
* Salford Tory councillors accused of racism for not accepting 'Islamophobia' definition <[link removed]>
Conservative councillors in Salford have been accused of racism for voting down an anti-Islamophobia motion over concerns it would undermine efforts to stop terrorism and threaten free speech.
Manchester Evening News
* Shamima Begum can return to UK to fight for citizenship, Court of Appeal rules <[link removed]>
Ms Begum, now 20, was one of three schoolgirls who left London to join the Islamic State group in Syria in 2015.
BBC
* Urgent warning over possible surge in Female Genital Mutilation as lockdown eases <[link removed]>
Charities are warning that there could be a spike in the number of cases of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) as lockdown restrictions ease.
ITV
* Sikhs drop legal threat against Scottish government after promise of ethnicity tick-box on census <[link removed]>
The Sikh Federation had threatened legal action unless ministers included a separate Sikh box in the ethnicity section of the next census, despite the fact Sikhism is a religion.
Scottish Legal News
* Daughter campaigns to legalise assisted dying after mum put on trial for murder <[link removed]>
Her father, Denis Eccleston, had been in agony for a long time with terminal bowel cancer and had asked his wife Mavis to help him to die.
ITV
* Vatican releases guidelines for bishops on how to handle clerical child abuse claims <[link removed]>
The Vatican has released guidelines for bishops on how to handle clerical child abuse claims after Pope Francis called for a 'practical handbook' for cases.
Mail Online
* Anger over video of Indian police attacking Dalit couple <[link removed]>
Two officials have been removed in India after a Dalit couple attempted suicide by consuming pesticide while being evicted from government land. Opposition parties say it is typical of the treatment of Dalits, who are at the bottom of the Hindu caste system.
BBC
* Campaign brewing to get Hindu god off popular beer <[link removed]>
An interfaith coalition is pressing the world's largest brewer to remove the name of a Hindu god from a popular beer that dates to the late 1800s.
Mail Online
* K-Pop music video edited to remove Hindu deity <[link removed]>
The Hindu god was onscreen for seconds, but the glimpse of Ganesha in the video was enough for many fans, especially in India, to express their discomfort.
Variety
** More on our campaign to protect free speech in Scotland
* Scotland’s new blasphemy law? <[link removed]>
In the latest episode of the NSS podcast, Emma Park is joined by Neil Barber and Stephen Evans to discuss the hate crime bill currently under consideration by the Scottish parliament. They argue that the bill is likely to make it all too easy to shut down valid debate about religion.
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