Thursday, May 31, 2018 –
12:59pm
As of tomorrow, police stations, courts and government offices
in the German state of Bavaria will be legally required to display
a Christian-style cross, under new legislation aimed at preserving
“Bavarian identity”.
The law, introduced by state premier Markus
Soder, a member of the conservative CSU party, has proved
controversial. Althogh opinion polls show that a majority of
Bavarians support the proposal, critics have accused the
state government of pandering to the far-right and undermining the
principles of secular government.
Soder and his supporters say the cross “is not a sign of
religion”, but instead a symbol of Bavaria’s heritage.
Christian Moser, mayor of the Bavarian town of
Deggendorf, echoed Söder’s sentiment. “This is about
culture, not religion,” he told The New York Times, adding that separation of
church and state remained a “given”.
In 2011, the European Court of Human Rights
ruled that displaying a cross in a public building was “passive”
act, and not necessarily a violation of religious
freedom.
First gay couples tie the knot in Germany
Many commentators have observed that the push for the law
reflects a growing hostility to Germany’s Muslim population,
recently swelled by the arrival of migrants and asylum seekers from
the Middle East and Africa.
Church attendance may be declining in Germany as
in the rest of western Europe, “but religious symbols are making a
powerful comeback as part of the simmering culture wars”, says The
New York Times.
The latest evidence of a rising tide of Islamophobia
can be found in a Pew Research study released on Tuesday which
found that a third of Germans would not accept a Muslim into their
family.
Resistance was most pronounced among Catholic
Germans, more than half of whom said they would not accept a Muslim
family member, compared to 16% of Protestants. Bavaria is one of
two German states where the majority of residents identify as
Catholic.
Perhaps surprisingly, however, much of the resistance
to Bavaria’s mandatory cross law “has come from Catholic
organisations and the church itself”, Deutsche Welle reports.
Hans Bauernfeind, the dean of the pastoral
office at St Stephen’s Cathedral in Passau, accused politicians of
attempting to strip the crucifix of its inherent Christian meaning
to serve their own agenda.
“The cross has its own message,” he told
Deutsche Welle. “That should not be used for other purposes, be
they political, social or cultural.”
Germany Islamophobia Christianity
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