2y ago

EU court says public employees may be barred from wearing head scarf

www.reuters.com

The top European Union court ruled on Tuesday that public authorities in member states can prohibit employees from wearing signs of religious belief, such as an Islamic head scarf, in the latest decision on an issue that has divided Europe for years.

The case came to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) after an employee of the eastern Belgian municipality of Ans was told she could not wear an Islamic head scarf at work.

73 comments

I'm not from the EU and don't have the context to really understand the history of this decision, but this just seems so unnecessarily divisive.
- It's a different approach to religious neutrality in government than the one used in the US, but I'm not convinced it's an invalid one.
  (In the US we have difficulties over government employees refusing to do their legally required job because "it's against their religion" to process paperwork for people they disapprove of, e.g. The Gays.)
  
  How does wearing a scarf inhibit these employees' ability to do their job? It is one thing if they posed a valid safety concern i.e theyre working around machinery that the scarf could get caught in but thats not the case here the vast vast majority of the time.
  
  Refusing to do part of the job would be an impairment of government function. A headscarf does nothing to impair function of the employee to do their job.
  Rather by banning it there creates a undue barrier to the participation of women of this religious backgrounds in government by not realizing the modesty principles of their culture. It is more akin to not allowing a woman to work in a field unless she does so wearing nothing but her underwear.
- It is petty isnt it?
  
  To me not having visible religious symbols when in public service seems very much in line with the idea of secular government
Why? Who is this good for?
- Those in favour of secular government and separation of religion and state
- The bigots
- Intelligent people who don't want imaginary friends working in government? Which translates to better service for everyone since the mentally ill will hopefully be discouraged from seeking a job position that is in charge of the public? Go work in a church if you want to pull that shit.
Religion is comic con with fans that kill each other regularly.
Label every instance of hate speech, and fantasy magic as primitive nonsense in a way that is obvious to the dumbest of people.
Like, "everyone in this era was illiterate and uneducated so 5k people present was 5k idiots" "drug use was prevalent" "mental health issues like schizophrenia and seizures were demon position because of ignorance and were used as parlor tricks to convince idiots con artists were magic" "religion was not separate from state in ancient times and the political struggles and propaganda are obvious"
There are so many aspects that people only believe because it was taught as toddlers when everyone is a gullible idiot. The vast majority of people only follow it because of the social network isolation and inability to connect with people in an open and trusting way outside of this context. Fighting the symptoms of religion is nonsense. Educate to remove the duality of "magic is real in religion" and create more physical community connectivity to break down entrenched social network isolation.
- I hope we as a species get past the irrationality of religion, some day, or at least toss the regressive ones in the bin alongside all the other mythologies of the past.
- Speaking of Comic-Con, there was a guy proselytizing in the middle of an intersection this summer at SDCC
  I kinda stopped reading after that first line.
  
  You made a good decision.
Personally I don't see the problem if they want to wear it. It is not harming anyone and in fact it may help people to integrate more and feel more represented if they see people similar to them in a public position.
- How many countries do you think that is? Are you saying the EU is right to do it because Iran and the Taliban do the opposite?
The entire world is figuring out you can’t please them all, legally.
If, legally, religious attire is allowed as an exception, then they must allow those satanists to wear theirs. Solution? Businesses and service providers can no longer restrict clothing, including if someone wants to work in a bathing suit. Or, face an expensive legal battle.
If long hair on males is forbidden in the schools, then you must be willing to force a Native American to cut his hair. If you are willing to do that, then expect more legal restriction and an expensive legal battle.
All this stuff is going through the courts in various countries in various extremes. Been interesting to watch over the last couple decades.
I’d be more sympathetic to this if it weren’t for the entire era of European colonialism. If your country did a genocide for nutmeg, maybe just ignore the head scarf while you get your moped license or access health care or whatever.
- I’m jelly of Europeans for a lot of reasons right now. But I still don’t think it’s a good look for French people to complain about Algerians or English people to act unwelcoming to Pakistanis.
Surely this fascistic bullshit goes against the ECHR? I hope there is an appeal already being put together.
Hmm that's weird. To many (not saying most or all) it's only a statement of fashion.
Democracy is when religious freedoms are persecuted.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
BRUSSELS, Nov 28 (Reuters) - The top European Union court ruled on Tuesday that public authorities in member states can prohibit employees from wearing signs of religious belief, such as an Islamic head scarf, in the latest decision on an issue that has divided Europe for years.
The municipality subsequently changed its terms of employment to require its employees to observe strict neutrality by not wearing overt signs of religious or ideological belief.
The woman concerned launched a legal challenge, saying her right to freedom of religion had been infringed.
It added that another public administration would also be justified if it decided to authorise, in a general and indiscriminate manner, the wearing of visible signs of belief.
The court said authorities in member states had a margin of discretion in designing the neutrality of public service they intended to promote.
However, this objective must be pursued in a consistent and systematic manner and measures must be limited to what is strictly necessary, the court said.
The original article contains 264 words, the summary contains 166 words. Saved 37%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

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