Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Regulations based on a Judao-Christian model of worship
Another Early Day Motion that caught my eye was this IMMIGRATION RULES AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE FLUENCY FOR MINISTERS OF RELIGION (excuse the caps, I just copied it from the page, couldn't bring myself to type it out). It deals with the new immigration rules for ministers of religion requiring that they have a command of English to level 4. Any know what constitutes level 4 English? I'd love to hear. Any case, the EDM notes the difficulties this may cause for certain religious practitioners - which surely was the point? The specific people are Poojari, who perform daily duties in Hindu temples and are already required to know Sanskrit, Gujarati and Hindi but, having been trained in India, not necessarily be good at English. As they do not come into preaching contact with public the EDM regrets that the Home Office would appear to have introduced regulations based on a Judao-Christian model of worship without considering the implications for other faiths; and calls upon the Home Office to amend its regulations to provide an exception to Poojaries because they do not preach.
It has thirteen signatures including Keith Vaz and Leicester South MP Parmjit Singh Gill and originated with Sarah Teather (also proxy-blogged, visit Sarah Teather is my MP) Lib Dem MP for Brent East who is learning Gujarati.
It has thirteen signatures including Keith Vaz and Leicester South MP Parmjit Singh Gill and originated with Sarah Teather (also proxy-blogged, visit Sarah Teather is my MP) Lib Dem MP for Brent East who is learning Gujarati.
