With a ceremony hundreds of muslims and non-muslims commemorated on the murder of Marwa el-Sherbini in a court room in Dresden/Germany. El-Sherbini was murdered by a racist during a trial out of his hatred for muslims. El-Sherbini was the witness in the criminal case against Alex W., who was sued for verbal abuses against El-Sherbini because of her being a muslim. On 21 August 2008 W. abused El-Sherbini at a public playground in Dresden during a quarrel over whose child should be using the playground’s swing. W. began to shout verbal abuse at El-Sherbini like “Islamist”, “terrorist” and “slut”. After police intervention and refusing to pay a fine W. was trialed at the district court of Dresden. He was found guilty by the court and fined €780 in November 2008. During the trial W. tried to explain his behavior by claiming, that “people like her” were not really human beings and therefore incapable of being insulted. Continue reading
European Court of Human Rights discusses crucifixes in Italian State Schools
The European Court of Human Rights held a Chamber hearing on Wednesday 30 June 2010 in the case of Lautsi v. Italy (application no. 30814/06 – http://www.echr.coe.int). The applicant, Ms Soile Lautsi, is an Italian national who lives in Abano Terme (Italy). In 2001-2002 her children, aged 11 and 13 respectively, attended the State school “Istituto comprensivo statale Vittorino da Feltre” in Abano Terme. All of the classrooms had a crucifix on the wall, including those in which Ms Lautsi’s children had lessons. She considered that this was contrary to the principle of secularism by which she wished to bring up her children. At a meeting of the school’s governing body the applicant’s husband raised the question of the display of religious symbols in classrooms and asked if they could be removed. In May 2002 the governors decided to leave the crucifixes in the classrooms. A directive recommending such an approach was subsequently sent to all head teachers by the Ministry of State Education. Continue reading
Posted in Society
Tagged Court, Cruficixes, ECHR, Human Rights, Italia, Religious Freedom, School
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