Some EU states discriminate against religious minoritis at home while promoting religious freedom abroad, report finds

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The US Commission on International Religious Freedom  (USCIRF) reported on Monday that a number of European Union nations have been discriminating against their own religious minority communities while advocating religious freedom abroad, the Washington Times reports.

In its six-page report, the USCIRF noted that Jews and Muslims have faced discriminatory restrictions pertaining to their clothing and to ritual slaughter in no fewer than nine EU member states, the Times said. In the Netherlands, for instance, the USCIRF found that Muslim women have increasingly avoided public spaces since a law was passed in 2019 prohibiting face covering clothing such as burqas and niqabs on public transportation and in schools and government buildings, the Times said.

In France and Germany, members of the Church of Scientology and Jehovah’s Witnesses religious groups have reported difficulties from discriminatory government scrutiny, the USCIRF found.

Concerning Christians, the USCIRF noted that in Finland, prosecutors continue to seek the conviction of evangelical lawmaker Paivi Räsänen who was charged with “hate speech” for publicly posting Bible verses condemning homosexuality and for publishing a booklet with the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Dioceses of Finland supporting traditional views of marriage and gender, the Times said.

“The EU and many of its member states are active in the promotion of religious freedom abroad, yet some EU countries have nonetheless maintained or implemented laws and policies that restrict the rights of religious minority groups or impact them in a discriminatory manner,” the USCIRF said in its report. “Members of religious minority groups have reported feeling targeted and unwelcome in certain EU countries and in some cases, unable to lead a life compatible with both their religion and the laws of the country they reside in.”

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