his thesis analyses whether a legislative ban on wearing a headscarf breaches the right to freedom of religion, as such right is universally understood. It describes the ambit of the right to freedom of religion by examining the theoretical justification and importance of the right and thereafter analysing how the right is recognised in international and regional treaties and domestic constitutions. It demonstrates that religious freedom comprises of the right to hold a religion and the right to manifest a religion in the form of worship, observance, practice and teaching. Religious freedom, however, is not absolute and the thesis explains in the light of international and comparative case-law that the right to freedom of religion may be limited by a law that pursues a legitimate state interest and is reasonable. In light of this theoretical framework the thesis examines the practice of Muslim women wearing a headscarf and argues that the practice constitutes a manifestation of Islamic belief protected by the right to freedom of religion. Thereafter this thesis examines French, Turkish and German prohibitions on wearing a headscarf, the effect of these laws on Muslim women and the justifications furnished for such laws. It is argued that the state interest of preserving secularism relied upon to justify a headscarf ban is not legitimate and does not justify a headscarf ban. Furthermore, even where the state has a legitimate interest in preventing the coercion of young girls, promoting the equality rights of women and maintaining safety and order, a headscarf ban does not constitute a reasonable limitation of religious freedom. Ultimately, this thesis argues that a headscarf ban exacerbates the problems it is meant to solve and constitutes an unjustifiable infringement of religious freedom.

During the pandemic of Covid-19 the restrictions changed the abilities of gatherings, so also for the members of the Church of Sweden, and questions arose from spokesperson of the Church of Sweden on the behalf of the members regarding injustice or discredit of the right of freedom of religion. This thesis handles how the restrictions affected the Church of Sweden, if there was any discredit for the freedom of religion and if people in Sweden found other alternatives during the pandemic to express spiritual life outdoors when there were limitations indoors for gatherings. My main source of material has been Kyrkans tidning (The Church’s Paper), a newspaper for the Church of Sweden, with articles involving the Archbishop Antje Jackelén. In the thesis are both qualitative and quantitate methods used, an inductive document analysis combined with a manual content analysis with the codewords experiential, social, economic, and political, concepts from a theory of religion and politics. The inference in this thesis is that there has been an injustice committed against members of the Church of Sweden, with reference to some of the restrictions settled by the Public Health Agency. Even though the Church of Sweden and the Sweden’s Christian Council might not agree, the comparison made between the articles, the United Declarations of Human Rights, other convents, and the definitions of religions there was no indication that the freedom of religion was illegally affected in Sweden during the pandemic of Covid-19.

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How does inter-religious dialogue in Indonesia transform and being transformed by the New Order authoritarian regime in the creation of a strong civil society and a religiously plural and democratic country? By discussing the politicization of religion and mobilization of religious communities by the New Order regime to fight against the Communists in the wake of the 1965 tragedy as the background, this dissertation seeks to analyze the anatomy of inter-religious relations in the country, including its historical roots, pivotal events, enduring issues and consequential development in the later period. The discussion is placed in a wider theoretical context on the role of religion in public life. Based on the analysis of topical biography, academic works, media reports and other reliable unpublished documents as the main sources, the dissertation investigates the intellectual legacy of four selected key thinkers in the field of inter-religious dialogue. It critically discusses the complex interplay between religion and politics in particular relation to such issues as religious pluralism, religious tolerance, exclusivism, human rights, freedom of religion, legal discrimination, and minority-majority relations. It highlights why and how the contesting discourse within a particular religious community about other group, between different religious communities, especially the Muslims and the Christians, as well as between religious communities and the regime move toward certain direction in particular context and then move towards the opposite direction in other context. Despite the wide spread conflict towards the end of the New Order regime and during the 2000s, the dissertation proved that inter-religious relations in Indonesia in general developed from antagonism to more dialogical relations over the period. The four selected key thinkers of inter-religious dialogue and their intellectual legacy demonstrated how religion could make fundamental contribution in the creation of democracy in a religiously plural society. / Religion

Univ., Dipl.-Arb.--Graz, 2004. / Literaturverz. S. 295 - 317.

Submitted in compliance with the requirements for the Doctor’s Degree in Language Practice, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2016. / Even after political liberation in South Africa, a mismatch exists between the principles of freedom of religious observance taught in Religion Education and the actual religious observances in public schools. Anglican hymns, prayers and observances are still being used in schools where the religious ethos has changed from one of Christianity to include Hinduism, Islam and Judaism, as well as Shembe and Zionist religions. The Draft Policy on Religion Education stipulates that there should be a distinction between home religions and the school’s official religious instruction. School religious observances, particularly observances which reflect the oppressive nature of past colonial impositions, should not give offence to learners from other religious denominations, or belittle their own practices. This thesis investigates the hegemonic influence of colonial religious observances and their possible effect on school populations. Within a critical linguistic approach, which explores the ways in which language both sets in place and reflects the relations of power implicit in social functioning, a critical discourse analysis was carried out on current and topical media texts reporting on contentious issues involving religious observances in schools. Community members were also consulted by means of surveys and interviews so as to provide an overview of the social context of the wider community within which the schools were situated. The resulting data could then be used to triangulate data obtained from the discourse analysis, and either confirm, modify or challenge the latter. The results suggest that, not only is there a strong hegemonic influence present in schools, as a result of the lingering vestiges of traditional colonial Christianity, but that modern Christian movements are also beginning to exert a persuasive influence on non-Christian populations. The issue of religious observance in schools is a highly complex and potentially controversial issue, but one which merits study in view of the fact that the stakeholders’ right to freedom of religious observance may be violated on a daily basis. / D

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / This thesis examines how globalization has affected Vietnam's view and treatment of religious institutions. In a larger context, it argues that the conditions of globalization foster increased liberalism and the latent development of civil society. The implications of globalization on religion in Vietnam are explored through a case study of the Catholic Church in Vietnam from 1975 to 2004. The Catholic Church is examined during two different periods: during autarky from 1975 to the Doi Moi reforms in 1986, and during international interdependence from 1987 to 2004. Isolated from international norms and pressures during its period of autarky, Vietnam suppressed, rigidly controlled, and severely restricted the Catholic Church. As Vietnam entered its present period of global integration and interdependency, Vietnam's view and treatment of the Catholic Church improved: suppression lessened, controls eased, and many restrictions lifted. The thesis concludes that in order to foster religious freedom and build civil society, policy makers should implement policies that engage rather than isolate. Engagement policies tend to increase a country's degree of global interdependency and integration with the world economy and community. As the level of interdependency increases, countries tend to become more subject to international norms and standards. / Captain, United States Air Force

The purpose of this study is to determine the students’ perceptions regarding the teacher's religious positioning and what the students prefer. Another purpose is to show what the students say the result could be if the teacher gives away his or her religious positioning. Previous research include several doctoral theses and student papers regarding how students perceive the teachers’ religious position and the religious education classroom as a whole, but research regarding how students say it should be is not found. The 91 surveys primarily used in this study contain both qualitative and quantitative questions. The methodology is a thematic analysis of the central themes that occur in the answered surveys. Furthermore, this study uses a two-part definition of freedom of religion: positive freedom of religion (the right to be religious and be a part of religious manifestations) and negative freedom of religion (the right to be non-religious and to not be exposed to other people’s religious manifestations). Several central themes are found, including: the teachers' own experience, more knowledge about (at least) one religion, objectivity, negativity towards religion, the professional teacher and many more. Among the identified themes one of the most important ones according to the students is objectivity – the teachers’ own opinions shouldn’t be visible in the classroom, though there are exceptions. The study finds that a majority of the students means that the teacher’s religious positioning doesn’t matter, as long as the teacher is professional enough. However, a teacher who is a non-believer is generally preferred over a teacher who is a believer. Furthermore, the term “objectivity” is mostly associated with a non-believer. In accordance with previous research there seems to exist a secular discourse within religious education that the students don’t notice. Within this discourse the students value the negative freedom of religion higher than they do the positive freedom of religion.

The issue of religious symbols in European public has become very often discussed by lawyers, politicians and sociologists as well as by the lay public. This diploma thesis is trying to contribute to these discussions by comparison of case-law of European courts in the cases concerning religious symbols. The thesis therefore analyses the legal sources providing protection of religious freedom and the individual decisions of European courts regarding the presence of religious symbols in public. The thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is providing the detailed analyse of the protection freedom of religion in European Convention on Human Rights and in the primary law of European Union. Then, it explains the principles of secularism and state neutrality and describes the models of relations between state and religion in Europe. The chapter two contains the introduction to the issue of religious symbols in public. The notion of "religious symbol" and "public" in the context of law is explained there. Further, it focuses on the limitations of religious symbols in public and the prohibition of concealment enacted in some of European countries. In chapter three, the cases of religious symbols in public schools are presented. The majority of European states has an interest in preserving...

Freedom of religion or belief is indisputable in Human rights discourse, more discussed is exactly what it is that is included in the concept of freedom of religion or belief (in Swedish: religionsfrihet). This thesis focuses on the freedom of religion or belief in a European context, in particular on the European court of human rights and article 9 in the European convention for human rights. Some criticism has been directed against the Court to the effect that its practice and verdicts don't answer to the pronounced desire to develop a pluralistic and inclusive form of freedom of religion or belief. My aim is to examine, analyse and test three different theories, which all try to develop alternatives to the expression freedom of religion or belief, in relation to six verdicts from article 9 in Europe convention. My basic purpose is to try to find new ways of talking about freedom of religion or belief that might lead to a more inclusive, pluralistic and equal interpretation of that concept. The three theories wich I use are elaborated by Richard Amesbury (associate professor at Claremont school of Theology); Hugo Strandberg (TD at Åbo Akademi) and Eberhard Herrmann (professor in philosophy of religion at Uppsala University); and Martha Nussbaum (professor of law and ethics at the University of Chicago). The six cases from the European court are: X v. Federal Republic of Germany, X v. United Kingdom, Chappell v. United Kingdom, Dahlab v. Switzerland, Leyla Sahin v. Turkey, Dogru v. France. The results of this thesis suggest that the use of alternative expression to the Swedish term religionsfrihet might to a great extent lead to a more inclusive, pluralistic and equal form of freedom of religion or belief – for example in such areas as: individuality, minorities and frames of reference in society as such.