THE TROUBLED RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RELIGIONS AND THE STATE

The issues discussed in this book all stand at the crossroads of freedom of speech and freedom of religion In some cases the two rights clash when somebody practising their right to freedom of speech affects others’ rights to freedom of religion as in instances of blasphemy and hate speech In other cases the two rights reinforcing one another together provide protection for the individual Not even this joint protection however is always sufficient to prevent state intervention for example the restriction of rights in wearing religious symbols or religious advertising rules A question of a third type is when the state or a state body enters the public space and becomes the ‘speaker’ on matters of religion in which case the state might be subject to special restrictionsAlthough their ideological and constitutional foundations seem stable the extent of freedom of religion and freedom of speech have repeatedly been the subject of public debates because of social and political changes in a dynamically transforming Europe Identifying the precise demarcation lines between these rights by means of the law is not a task that has been accomplished completely or for all time The increasing rate of immigration with a resulting involuntary cohabitation of various religious cultures as well as the continual weakening of the Christian character of the continent make it critical to find the right responses to the questions discussed in this book both in the individual European legal systems and at the level of the European community of states and of the European system of protecting human rightsThe first and second chapters of the book discuss the appearance of religions in the public sphere and in public education Traditionally the state is not a subject of fundamental rights and yet it takes a position on questions relating to religion whichno matter how we explain itis a type of ‘speech’ This raises the question of how such speech can be restricted or ‘where are the