The continued survival of the seperate school system is seen by many as highly divisive and ultimately, by allowing the Catholic child religious instruction and the opportunity to be taught exclusively by other Catholics for certain classes, it is perceived to offer an advantage to Catholic children over Protestants. Most Protestants attend state schools which are required by law to teach children about numerous religions and the equal opportunities legislation makes it illegal for state schools to discriminate in employment matters. Aside from the obvious inequality in the system, which provides anti-Catholics with ammunition, this system may lead to a further fragmented Scottish society as requests for seperate Muslim schools begin to appear. Each of the areas we have explored indicate that sectarianism is still an issue for modern Scotland and as modern Scots we are divided over the question of how to deal with it. We cannot allow people to continue to deny the existence of a problem which is causing misery and even death .
Further evidence of sectarian violence is included in G. Walker's article Identity Questions in Contemporary Scotland when he mentions the outcry over the 1997 proposal to extradite Jason Campbell to Northern Ireland after he committed a sectarian murder in Glasgow in 1995 (should he be treated as a political prisoner?). Also in 1997 the street fights over sectarian songs and slogans in Govan resulted in two deaths. In 1996 the Labour councillor for Grangemouth was sacked for sectarian abuse of a neighbour, in 1998 a council worker was sacked for writing sectarian slogans at their workplace (1). School buses continue to be stoned by rival school children who are picking up on their parents beliefs. On BBC Radio Five on the 2nd of May 2001 the Reverend Angus Smith, a Scot, phoned in to complain about the visit of the anti-christ to Britain (he meant the pope). The radio panel were clearly bemused by the strength of his feelings on the subject and the Reverend had confirmed, for them and presumably most of the listeners, the sectarian image of Scotland.
