22/03/2018

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Can’t we all just get along? Europe is a diverse continent which has always hosted a panoply of different religious (and non-religious) beliefs and attitudes. But our shared history is also marred by efforts – from the Crusades against “infidels” and “heretics”, to the European wars of religion in the 17th Century, to the Holocaust in the 20th – to suppress or exterminate one religious group or another.

In France, the solution has been to impose a strict separation between church and state. In 2010, France became the first country in Europe to ban the full Muslim veil in public spaces. France has also seen legal wranglings over Christian symbols in public places, such as in 2016 when courts ordered a town in eastern France to remove a statue of the Virgin Mary from a public park. Is the solution just to keep religion private? During the 2017 election campaign, the candidate for the anti-immigration Front National, Marine Le Pen, proposed a complete ban on all religious symbols in public places.

What do our readers think? We had a comment sent in by Raluca, arguing that “All religious symbols should be prohibited in public”. This is obviously a provocative suggestion, and one unlikely to find much popular support. However, what if we take “public” to mean “state-operated institutions” such as schools, hospitals, government buildings, etc.? That is not so different from the position taken by the French government, which strictly enforces secularism and laïcité.

Should religious symbols be banned in public places? We asked Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from all sides of the political spectrum to stake out their positions on this question, and it’s up to YOU to vote for the policies you favour. See what the different MEPs have to say, then vote at the bottom of this debate for the one you most agree with! Take part in the vote below and tell us who you support in the European Parliament!