Introduction

When it comes to religion and belief, a confused public sphere is reflected in a confused policy sphere. Many have noted a widespread and growing diversity of religion and belief as a result of continuing traditional forms, evolving informal ones and the globalisation and migration that has characterised Western development over recent decades, especially since the turn of the 21st century (Davie, 2015; Woodhead and Catto, 2012). In response, a number of policy approaches have emerged that aim to address this, dominated by varying combinations of preoccupation with extremism, cohesion and equality. While each of these overlaps with the others, at the same time, they are distinct. They also sometimes accidentally compete, as in the challenge of demystifying Islam at the same time as ‘othering’ it, and in handling sometimes competing protections, notably, religious opposition to same-sex marriage and marriage equality. As responses, the dominant policy spaces imply a degree of anxiety about religion and belief as risky and problematic, and in need of a solution. These broad responses to the ‘problem’ of public religion and belief form an important part of the context for what happens about religion and belief in spaces of learning. They shape how we imagine religion and belief, as well as how we respond. They will be the focus of this chapter.

Cohesion

A key focus of policymakers’ interest in religion and belief is anxiety about relationships between and beyond religious traditions, and solutions have been sought that reflect this. In Britain, multiculturalism has been an important lens and governments have valorised the notion of ‘community cohesion’ between multiple identities as a basis for managing plurality. The resulting policies have tended to take two directions at once. On the one hand, cohesion is aligned with good citizenship in efforts to engage people of all faiths and none in public activities that would get people working together and therefore living well together. On the other hand, a bundle of ‘Prevent’ policies seeks to tackle religious radicalisation and violent extremism, understood as a particular problem of Islam – though efforts have also been made to balance and rebalance policy to challenge the ‘othering’ of Islam that is often thought to have resulted, as well as to take account of Far Right political extremism and nationalism.