EEA Statement on the Banning of the Wearing of Religious Symbols in Public ~ March 2004

This statement is supported by Rev. Stéphane Lauzet, General Secretary of Alliance Évangélique Française

The wearing of religious symbols in public places has become a hot contemporary issue. Despite Europe's history of defending the human rights of all, politicians in several European countries seem to be more and more open to banning the wearing of religious symbols in public places like schools. Why?

Europe is struggling with the realities of its multi-cultural and multi-religious societies. In particular, it faces an understandable fear of violent religious fundamentalism, especially Islamic extremism.

Could a ban on the wearing of religious symbols in public help combat the growth of militant religion? Could a ban help create a more harmonious society because religious differences would be kept hidden? Could a ban help liberate people from the oppressiveness of their religion? Or is a ban actually an infringement of a fundamental human right?

EEA believes that this kind of ban restricts people's freedom of religion and expression unacceptably. Some might wear a religious symbol as a radical political act or as an aid to aggressive proselytism. Others might be forced by their community to wear their symbol. However, there is no evidence that the majority of symbol wearers belong to these categories. Rather, most choose to wear their symbol as a way of showing their obedience and loyalty to their faith. For some, it is an essential and non-negotiable religious practice.

In reality, bans are very unlikely to thwart the rise of religious extremism. Instead, they are more likely to force some committed people of faith to choose between loyalty to their faith and their country: both pushing people towards extremism, and forcing identity conflicts between communities, rather than contributing towards genuine integration.

If politicians seek to ban only religious symbols, it can only be because they believe that it is religious expression that is particularly dangerous. It seems to us that it is inconsistent to ban a skullcap and not, for example a shirt with a logo expressing a political opinion, or a commitment to a particular football team.

EEA recognizes that State efforts to lessen the influence of a dominant religion over a country have sometimes been key to increasing the religious freedom and well- being of all the members of that society. At the same time, while religion can obviously be misused to cause great harm, secular political ideologies can be abused just as dangerously. Secularism seems to us to be as much a “faith” as the faiths that believe in a deity. In our view, the standard civil and criminal legal framework of any society should be the context for addressing any abuse and misuse of faith or ideology: picking on religious communities for particular attention seems to us to be a recipe for far more difficulties that it solves.

In our very mixed European history of wars and tribal conflict, we also have a wonderfully positive tolerant legal and cultural tradition of living together without oppressing one other. It is our conviction that everybody must be free to live their lives according to their convictions, insofar as they do not endanger others. Bans do not, in our view, make public places neutral and safe spaces for people of all faiths: because enforced non-religion is not neutral.

We are very concerned when a State seeks to become the judge of religious practice. Politicians are not equipped to make such judgments, nor do they have the right to make them. If a headscarf is banned today, could speaking about one's faith outside one's home or church become illegal tomorrow? We believe that such a progression would be entirely logical: and against the interests of ALL of Europe's citizens!

For more information, please contact Julia Doxat-Purser, Religious Liberty Coordinator.