RNS
LONDON, UK, January 20, 2008: A government-sponsored opinion poll in Britain has found that religion has displaced race as the most divisive issue facing the nation.
The survey, conducted by the respected Ipsos MORI research organization for the government’s Equalities and Human Rights Commission, says 60 percent of respondents believe religious intolerance has become a bigger headache than racial tensions among Britons. Ten years ago, government policymakers had ticketed improving race relations as the No. 1 demand on their social agenda.
Trevor Phillips, the chairman of the UK Human Rights Commission, remarked that “at this historic moment, when America has chosen its first black leader, here in Britain we have a sophisticated sense of our own identity. The survey points to emerging religious divisions” that have begun to supplant racial conflict as the major social worry in this country, he stated.