June 22, 2004 Strasbourg, France …. [Ansel Oliver/ANN Staff]
Restrictions on the display of religious symbols in public–as France has done recently with Muslim headscarves, Jewish yarmulkes (skullcaps) and “large” Christian crosses–will create more problems than such bans will solve, religious liberty experts meeting here last week said.
Protestant, Catholic and secular scholars were among the experts from different faiths and countries who met at the sixth meeting on Religious Symbols in the Public Sphere from June 17 to 20. The meeting was convened by the International Religious Liberty Association, a multi-faith organization that was launched over a century ago by the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
“These [people] are some of the best experts in the International Religious Liberty Association. Every one of them has influence,” Dr. John Graz, IRLA secretary-general, and Adventist Church representative at the meeting, said. “It’s absolutely great for us to put these people together,” he added.
One of the problems in Europe, according to Graz, is how to accept the use of religious symbols in the public arena. In many countries it’s not a problem, he said, as long as it causes no trouble.
“Other countries want to protect the public schools from extremes–particularly radical Muslims. France is very restrictive. [It’s] not just Muslim head scarves, but all religious symbols which are visible,” Graz said.
Graz said new regulations in France include a view of the systematic absence on Saturday as a religious symbol. Request for a regular weekly absence–as Jews and Seventh-day Adventists, among others–ask for so they may observe the Biblical Sabbath, must be refused if it is incompatible with the school schedule, under the French law.
“Systematic absence on a particular day of the week is also considered a prominent religious symbol,” he says. “The fact that you don’t go to school regularly on Saturday will affect teachers and students at public schools.”
An evaluation will take place after one year of the law’s implementation, Graz indicated.
The IRLA group of experts decided to follow up the issue and monitor the difficulties students meet. They will work through the Association Internationale pour la Defense de la Liberte Religieuse (AIDLR) and the French IRLA chapter.
The IRLA, organized by members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and chartered in 1893, is a non-denominational organization, established to promote and defend religious freedom for all groups and people around the world. For more information about the group, visit www.irla.org.
Copyright © 2004 by Adventist News Network.
