Nationality, Race and Religion

Nationality, race and religion are different things. They do not depend on one another; in civilised countries, none determines either of the others.

Nationality

A person's nationality is decided upon several factors. Where they were born is often, but not always, the primary consideration. Then there are the passports held by their parents. For example, a British person, living overseas, can confer British nationality upon their offspring, although any children of such offspring must be born in the United Kingdom in order to inherit full UK nationality. If they are born overseas, they cannot claim UK nationality. Thus, nationality is not unalterably part of the DNA, nor may it be passed on verbally at will, unlike religion.

Race

The enlightened majority concur that race is an illusion. For centuries, race has been assigned by colour of skin or geometry of eyes. However, we are each unique. Identical twins have undeniable differences - so the notion of race is no more than a lame attempt to generalise, lumping groups of us together on account of some arbitrarily chosen, shared characteristic. When asked to comment in a seminar at university, I answered a physiology lecturer's question, on the result of an antibody test, with sincerity, and in error, as any learner must expect to do from time to time. "Said with great northern vigour," sneered the lecturer, "but, sadly, wrong." Entrusted as an exemplar to those under his tutelage, the youthful don unfortunately proved himself delinquent as steward of his charges. His conduct fits my definition of a racist. He belittled an identifiable trait based on my geographical origin and heritage, implying that my 'northern vigour' had replaced factual accuracy-checking when I responded to his tutorial inquiry.

I do not claim my accent as a mark of race. I simply seek to draw attention to people's propensity to point up unconsciously acquired characteristics as being indicative of something that helps them prove a point.

Religion

Religion is a set of beliefs, handed down verbally from generation to generation, usually by parents to children. You are not born into your religion. It is inculcated in you by those in charge of your upbringing. Religion is not an unalterable part of your make-up, in the way that your DNA is, or the accent you learned from your parents and those around you in childhood. For you are at liberty, upon reaching the age of majority, to throw over the religion your parents saddled you with, and replace it with another, or with the healthy freethinking vacuum of atheism.

Recently, two men were removed from an Alaska Airlines flight, after a fellow passenger raised the alarm, having seen one of them sending texts in Arabic. The whistle-blowing observer was not able to read Arabic, so did not know what was being said. The two men claim they were discriminated against as Muslims.

I argue that the men were not identifiable as Muslims from their Arabic texts, nor from their appearance. No-one can infer a person's religious affiliation, if any, by looking at him. I suggest that the observer, mindful of the horrific events of 11 September, 2001, noticed the men drawing attention to themselves, and decided he had little choice but to act. He may well have thought it better to risk a false positive than risk a tragic end to their flight for himself and his fellow travellers. And I concur.