A Public Square: Does what it says on the tin. Public Prayer: Have you nothing else to do?

There has been a bit of public controversy about the celebration of the end of Ramadan, which included a mass prayer event which took place in Trafalgar Square. This has resulted in the shadow Justice Minister Nick  Timothy being asked to resign because he criticised the event, also attended by Sadiq Khan, the Lord Mayor of London, as a “Mass ritual prayer in public places is an act of domination.” Religious domination is where a particular religion’s principles, values, and leadership exert dominant control over societal, cultural, legal or political life, a complete antithesis to secularism.

Heads up, I’m an atheist and treat each religious tradition/institution with respect and disdain in equal measure. I respect, though at times bewildered by those who wish to believe in an interventionist patriarch in the sky, but the act of religious domination is part of the Abrahamic tradition, whether Jew, Christian, or Muslim; it’s called monotheism. Jews are unequivocally told in the first commandment:” You shall have no other gods before me “. Christians believe the same, and in addition, Jesus says, “ I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me,” which is a central Christian declaration where Jesus states he is the exclusive path to God, the embodiment of divine truth, and the source of eternal life. Muslims cite the adhan, which declares there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger. So, let’s be clear, they all bang on about their one true faith as the only path to eternal salvation.

Those who often say I was born a Hindu, Jew, Christian, or Muslim on any level is quite frankly absurd, no less absurd than me saying I was born a communist. The question here is, when people say they are of a particular faith/religion, then the question that needs to be asked is, did you have any agency( defined as a person’s capacity to make choices and act in accordance with their values and desires) in deciding the label that has been slapped on you? The answer is obvious. I call this the” Identity Cage.”

 In Islam, the first ceremony is called Adhan (the call to prayer) in the ear of the baby, so that the call to serve Allah is present from the start of the child’s life. On the seventh day, the hair is shaved to show that the child is the servant of Allah. Then you head off to the madrasa for further indoctrination about the one true faith. In Christianity, it all starts with a Christening ceremony that celebrates a child’s inclusion in the church family. Then there is Baptism, which in effect says a newborn is a sinner because of the shenanigans of the mythical Adam and Eve. This is known as the original sin, and it is that stain and guilt that needs to be absolved. If that sounds absurd, it is. In Hinduism, a newborn is seen as the purest form of creation. Then there is Confirmation in the Catholic Church, which takes place at a later stage in life, at a mature and ripe old age of 12  and is seen as a personal commitment to the faith. Not to forget, the first communion at 7 years of age, where the child, for the first time, receives the Eucharist, which is the eating of consecrated bread( turning it into the actual body of Christ) and drinking of consecrated wine( turning into the actual blood of Christ), further drawing the child into the bosom of the church. Then off to Sunday School for further indoctrination, disguised as fun. This all fits in with the Jesuit mantra “Give me the child until he is seven, and I will show you the man”, a form of human branding.

 For young Jews, it’s the Bar Mitzvah (meaning “Son of the Commandment”). This is the primary rite of passage for Jewish boys, marking their coming of age at 13. It signifies the transition to religious adulthood(“you cannot be serious” adulthood at 13), where they become responsible for observing Jewish laws (mitzvot), leading services, and participating in the community minyan. All these faiths have something in common: the child has no agency in deciding who they are or what they become; it’s indoctrination, a sort of intellectual and evolutionary circumcision.

 So, getting to the point, I don’t believe that public spaces should be turned into places of public worship, no matter your faith tradition. I’m with the French, where street/mass prayer events are considered an improper occupation of a “public” space. Let’s be honest, religious get-togethers are what churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, and your homes are for, and there are plenty of them. This is the sort of crass identity politics that undermines social cohesion. Bertrand Russell suggested, and I agree, that religion is a disease born of fear. I wrote a poem years ago, about how various religions look at death and finished it with a line from my Dad, ” Love your fellow man and never fear where you really go from here.My parents were both Hindu, but my Dad would say that “Dil Eak Mandir Hai”: Your Heart is your Temple. He clearly believed you don’t wear or advertise your faith; you express it through serving your fellow human being.

Finally, some of my friends are people of faith, and I love them, but let me finish with two quotes from my father, a father who never referred to me as a Hindu. When I asked him what his role as my father was, he replied: “My role as a father is to liberate, not to indoctrinate. ” At 15, I was a student at Lisnasharragh Secondary School, where luminaries like Michael Stone and George Best attended. However, George passed his 11 plus and went to Grosvenor Grammar School, but left and came to Lisnasharragh to play football. Anyway, I was asked to participate in a weekly ritual, which was to throw stones at buses that transported children from catholic schools. I politely refused, using simple logic that I wouldn’t do that because these kids have done no harm to me. They are“f’ing Fenians,” came the explanation. I asked what a Fenian was, and they all looked blankly at me and then proceeded to slap me about. I went home with a bloody nose and angrily asked my Dad if I was a f’ing Hindu, and I immediately closed my eyes waiting for a slap.

I opened my eyes after a few seconds, and my Dad said the following profound phrase, a phrase that I have never heard uttered by a parent in my lifetime, and a phrase whose resonance  I only really understood years later. He said, “I may have contributed  to your creation, but I never want you to be simply my reflection”

Suneil Sharma

2nd April 2026

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