A series of cases, some of them with a high media profile, suggest that freedom of religion or belief in the United Kingdom is being undermined by the operation of new equality laws. This article outlines the constitutional context for liberty and equality rights as well as the main ways in which religious liberty is secured by and within equality law. However, British equality law puts pressure on religious liberty in four ways: (1) it confines the relevance of ‘religion’ to limited social contexts; (2) it creates a priority for equality-perspectives over liberty-perspectives on social conflict; (3) it generates new social assumptions about what individuals have to believe and say (or refrain from saying) if they are to be trusted to uphold the law; (4) it provides legitimation for the imposition of contested comprehensive equality doctrines, some of which are inimical to civil liberty. In response, it is important to emphasise the role of equality law as a tool to secure mutual toleration and equal rights in the face of religious and ethical disagreement.

中文翻译：

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宗教自由是否受到英国平等法的威胁？

一系列案件，其中一些在媒体上具有很高的知名度，表明英国的宗教或信仰自由正在受到新平等法的实施的破坏。本文概述了自由和平等权利的宪法背景，以及平等法和平等法保障宗教自由的主要方式。然而，英国平等法在四个方面对宗教自由施加压力：(1) 它将“宗教”的相关性限制在有限的社会环境中；(2) 在社会冲突中，平等观点优先于自由观点；(3) 它产生了关于个人必须相信和说什么（或不说）的新社会假设，如果他们要被信任来维护法律；(4) 它为强加有争议的全面平等学说提供了合法性，其中一些不利于公民自由。作为回应，重要的是强调平等法作为确保在面对宗教和伦理分歧时相互容忍和平等权利的工具的作用。