When atheist billboards and Muslim veils are both under threat, we need secularism

An op-ed by Justin Trotter and Kevin Smith of the Centre of Inquiry Canada on how secularism, properly understand, respects both the neutrality of public institutions and individual freedom of expression (unlike Quebec’s proposed charter which focuses on such individual freedom):

The appropriate response to this inconsistency is a middle ground based on secularism as neutrality, in which public institutions and the public square are cleansed of preferential treatment accorded to any religion, and where freedom of expression is enjoyed without discrimination by individual citizens. This should be a national interest. Quebec employees who are not in positions of authority should have their freedom to wear religious symbols respected. Atheists putting up advertisements on the other side of the country should have their access to market guaranteed. The fight for religious and secular expression is one and the same. That is the real meaning of secularism.

When atheist billboards and Muslim veils are both under threat, we need secularism – The Globe and Mail.