Anti-Catholic abuse amounts to half of all religiously aggravated hate crimes in Scotland, an official Scottish Government report has revealed.
Commonly referred to as Scotland’s Shame, this anti-Catholic abuse is showing little sign of becoming a political issue as it is repeatedly ignored and swept under the carpet by politicians and the media.
The Catholic Church though has spoken out and their comments derive to reach a wider audience. This of course happens in the same week that Hibs manager Neil Lennon received a ban from the SFA for his aeroplane celebration after the dramatic last minute equaliser in the 5-5 draw with Rangers on the last day of the season.
Irish Catholic Lennon gets punished yet the thousands who indulged in sustained sectarian abuse against the former Celtic captain and manager get off ‘Scot’free.
“Catholicism still accounts for half of all religious hate crimes in this country, a statistic which is profoundly depressing bearing in mind that Catholics account for just over one eighth of the population,” a Church spokesperson stated.
And the Catholic Church believes that these new figures show that Catholics make up half of all victims of religiously aggravated hate crimes are the ‘depressing reality’ of an ‘intolerant iceberg.’
The latest religiously aggravated offending in Scotland statistics were published by the Scottish Government last week. They show that Roman Catholicism is the religion that was most often the subject of reported abuse, with 319 charges from 2017 to 2018.
This is a decrease of 17 per cent from 384 charges in the previous year, however it still amounts to half of all religiously aggravated hate crimes in Scotland.
Responding to the release of the official Scottish Government figures, the spokesperson for the Church said the figures are ‘a single and very small measure of intolerance towards Roman Catholics in Scotland’ and suggested that the true figures may be even higher.
“Catholicism still accounts for half of all religious hate crimes in this country, a statistic which is profoundly depressing bearing in mind that Catholics account for just over one eighth of the population,” he said.
“What the new figures show is that while the numbers have changed slightly the depressing reality of residual anti-Catholicism recurs the same. It is also worth stating that these figures do not reveal what the policing strategy, behaviours and targets are, and therefore they don’t always reflect accuracy.
“We need to keep in mind these are broad-brush strokes of an intolerant iceberg. A fuller view would require more details on prosecutions which were abandoned or information on police messaging which can result in prosecutions.”
The Scottish Government publication stated that the number of religiously aggravated charges this year will have been influenced by the repeal of the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012.
That legislation came into force on 1 March 2012 – after the so called Shame Game and was repealed on 20 April 2018.
That night at Celtic Park -the Shame Game – Rangers lost the plot completely on the park and other that react to a nasty whisper by Ally McCoist with a push and a snarl – Lennon and Celtic did nothing wrong. We just won the match.
We have recently written about the treatment that Neil Lennon has had to endure in Scotland HERE.
Listen to Part 2 of The Jimmy Johnstone Academy with A Celtic State of Mind below and if you missed part one that is a little further down. This is emotional stuff so don’t be surprised if you shed a tear or two while listening.
