With Covid-19 Cases soaring due to the extremely infectious Omicron variant, both the Scottish Government and UK Government have made it extremely clear that people should not change or alter their Christmas plans. This brings forth memories of last Christmas, when cases were rising due to a new infectious variant and restrictions were reimposed, but special provisions were put in place to ensure people’s Christmas plans can still go ahead. While it is welcoming to see that Governments across the United Kingdom recognise the importance of seeing loved ones at Christmas, these special provisions set a precedent that must be shared equally amongst other holidays celebrated by the BAME community.
If we cast our minds back to the latter half of 2020, when local lockdowns were used to try and curb the spread of localised outbreaks of (what we now know as) the Alpha variant, the majority of the North of England, including Manchester and East Lancashire were put under lockdown restrictions while various parts of Scotland including Aberdeen, Dumfries, and the West of Scotland were put into lockdown sporadically between August and December. These measures were needed to curb the spread of Covid-19, and that is understandable. However, these measures also severely disrupted Eid al-Adha and Diwali celebrations, with some restrictions being announced as late as the eve of celebrations. Yet, at the same time, the Scottish Government announced their plans to loosen restrictions for the Christmas period, which they then followed through with, despite cases nationwide spiking much higher than when restrictions were placed on Eid and Diwali.
Before being elected as one of the Scottish Conservative MSPs for the Glasgow Region, Dr Sandesh Gulhane articulated to the BBC exactly how BAME individuals feel when seeing the special circumstances given to those celebrating Christmas stating:
"What I'd really like is for the importance of these festivals like Eid and Diwali to be recognised and if special dispensation can't be made for these events to have that discussion, to be honest, [and] don't make me feel like a second class citizen. Don't make me feel as if my religious events aren't important. Discuss why they are important and say this is why we can't celebrate it but don't have an exception for Christmas just because it's Christmas. Have it done on exactly the same level in terms of conditions that we're doing for Eid and Diwali."
Fortunately, this year, celebrations of Eid, Diwali, Hanukkah and many other religious holidays were able to go ahead mostly unrestricted thanks to the United Kingdom’s vaccine rollout protecting us from the dangers of Covid-19. However, it is all too familiar that as Christmas draws close, we are seeing record numbers of cases across the United Kingdom and these numbers continue to rise. Yet, decisions on restrictions are being delayed until after Christmas day and people are being urged not to cancel their Christmas plans. While this is encouraging to see as we move on to a place where we can hopefully live with Covid-19, it must be noted that this sets a precedent that important religious holidays cannot have restrictions imposed on them. Therefore, if we are to live in an equal society, religious holidays such as Eid and Diwali should also have special provisions in the event of the imposition of restrictions.