The government's campaign against religious sectarianism is being merged into the wider effort to rid Scotland of all shades of bigotry and hate crime.
The First Minister will welcome Muslim leaders to Bute House for a reception tomorrow night as part of the One Scotland campaign to celebrate diversity, with a particular emphasis on the need to promote harmony between Scotland's communities in the wake of the recent terrorist attack on Glasgow Airport.
Now it has emerged that this all-inclusive campaign is seen by ministers as the best vehicle for continuing previous work on tackling religious sectarianism.
A spokesman for the First Minister said: "The reception for representatives of Scotland's Muslim communities is part of a long-standing and broad approach by the First Minister to celebrating the diversity of modern Scotland.
"Diversity is a positive strength of Scottish identity. Mr Salmond, the cabinet and whole ministerial team are delivering a very important and considered One Scotland campaign to touch all of Scotland's communities."
Alex Salmond also plans to hold a reception next month for members of the emergency services and individual members of the public who tackled the failed suicide bombers at Glasgow Airport.
The One Scotland campaign has already seen health secretary Nicola Sturgeon speak at a Scotland United Against Terrorism rally organised by Muslim leaders. Community Safety Minister Fergus Ewing has also attended anti-sectarian events over recent weeks.
An aide to Mr Salmond said there was no question of playing down the problem of religious bigotry nor any attempt to undermine the legacy of former First Minister Jack McConnell in tackling the issue.
The first anti-sectarianism summit, attended by church leaders and football club representatives, was a big success, but there had been a feeling that the second such summit had achieved less.
It was felt now that the issue would be tackled more effectively as part of a wider campaign.
"The First Minister will build on the work of the previous administration and move forward and combat sectarianism within the overall context of the government's One Scotland' campaign'," said the aide.
"He favours a focus on community and grass roots activity, as well as national events - for example, the reception at Edinburgh Castle held in June to celebrate anti-sectarian initiatives," he added.
It was pointed out that since coming to office the First Minister has also urged the new Prime Minister to sweep away the sectarianism contained in the Act of Settlement, and suggested that this could be done within a bill of rights, or indeed by repealing the act.
The aide said that while the terrorist threat may have increased, the need to take initiatives stressing Scotland's diverse communities standing together and celebrating their place in Scotland was a theme the First Minister had pursued for many years as SNP leader.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article