Protecting Religious Freedom and Fighting Radicalism and Extremism: Must the Relations between Church and State Be Rethought?
(2017) LARSN Conference 2017 - Law and Religion — Location: Amsterdam (Netherlands) (19.May.2017)
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- Abstract
- Since the tragic attack of September 11, 2001, several Western countries have adopted antiterrorism measures. Since the attacks of Madrid (2004) and London (2005), States are not only concerned by terrorism but also by radicalism as a step which can lead to commit terrorist attacks. In a context of fear due to the recent attacks of Paris, Brussels and Nice, France and Belgium have adopted – and plan to continue to adopt – several new criminal measures to find against radicalism. However, those measures raise several questions regarding the respect of religious freedom and the principle of separation between Church and State. The aim of the paper is to analyse, in particular, two of those measures and their potential risk of infringement into religious freedom and religious autonomy. Firstly, the Belgian minister of Justice has adopted a “plan against radicalism” in prisons and he wants to oblige Muslim prison chaplains to take training sessions to be able to react to radicalism. This policy raises several questions regarding religious freedom and the principle of equality and non-discrimination because this training is not required for the ministers of other religions. Secondly, several politicians have proposed to oblige ministers of worship to break the secrecy of confession to help public authorities to arrest criminals. This proposition raises serious questions regarding religious autonomy and the mutual respect of independence between Church and State.
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Citations
Wattier, S. (2017). Protecting Religious Freedom and Fighting Radicalism and Extremism: Must the Relations between Church and State Be Rethought? LARSN Conference 2017 - Law and Religion, Amsterdam (Netherlands). https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/179538