In praise of Shabana Mahmood

Should Shabana Mahmood be allowed to ‘impose’ her religious beliefs on everyone else? Lord Falconer doesn’t think so, arguing yesterday that the Justice Secretary was ‘motivated… by her religious beliefs’ in her opposition to assisted dying. He added: ‘I respect that religious belief but I do not think it should be imposed on everybody else.’

It’s not uncommon to hear a secular politician making this argument about those with religious belief, though perhaps Falconer should be applauded for aiming it at a Muslim politician rather than a Christian one, as is more frequently the case. Either way, suggesting that someone’s religious beliefs mean their views on key issues are in some way less important and perhaps quite sinister is a very common technique. The problem is that it implies only people who subscribe to some kind of organised religion have irrational beliefs that shouldn’t be imposed on the wider population. The truth is that we all have beliefs, religious or not.

Falconer knows this very well, as someone who has taken several deep dives into the debate around biological sex and gender.