Sectarianism in Scotland: The Last Decade (Chapter One)
The Race Relations Act of 1976 was designed to allow for greater punishment of incitement to racial hatred, which involved no physical violence directly but encouraged it. It also allowed crimes with a purely racial motivation to be treated differently. These two points both apply to sectarianism, as the law stands you cannot be charged for inciting sectarian hatred (clearly the singing at football matches would qualify if a new law was to be introduced). The idea behind the second point, which would allow the police to treat crimes with a purely sectarian motivation differently from normal violence, that attacks with sectarian motives tend towards recidivism and are more likely to be directed at a random member of the public who is perceived to be part of the target group (if identified as from the opposite side of the religious divide, this could include wearing the wrong colour as religious beliefs are not necessarily verified). This type of crime should be distinguished from common assault and be recognised as something seperate from an alcohol fueled argument outside a public house at closing time.
There have been dramatic changes within Scotland which have helped to end sectarian discrimination but prejudice still exists and is much more difficult to root out. The decline in church going combined with mixed neighbourhoods has helped to decrease sectarian tension. There has also been the decline of the manufacturing industry as the middle class has grown and the increase in foreign ownership of firms, which makes them less likely to care about religion. Catholics now hold positions of power in Scotland and are well represented across the board in terms of employment. The number of mixed marriages is higher than ever before.
The main factors which remain and could be held responsible for maintaining sectarianism are the separate Catholic school system, segregation can only ever cause more suspicion and bad feeling, the continuing intense Old Firm rivalry in football which results in regular sectarian killings and the persistent popularity of movements such as the Orange Order, which are anti-Catholic. Although we can observe socio-economic changes which would tend to encourage a decline in sectarianism it still exists in modern Scotland. Though it should be noted that the religious tension between Catholic and Protestant is largely confined to west central Scotland. There has been a worrying trend to ignore the problem and wait for it to go
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