Anti-religion groups have created a climate hostile to frank discourse. Besides defamation campaigns and negative stereotyping, hate incidents have come to the Observatory’s notice. Activists physically prevented a professor to enter an auditorium to voice deviating views. Anti-religion slogans and images are often used in hurtful manners, such as the public destruction of crosses, the image of Jesus as a crucified pig, or slogans such as “We are here to hurt your feelings” or “If Mary had had an abortion, we would have been spared people like you”.
Law 93-121 of January, 27th, 1993, so- called “loi Neiertz” made it a specific offense to obstruct abortions. Therefore manifestations in front of hospitals are frequently not permitted. A well-known doctor and embryologist, Xavier Dor, was condemned and sentenced to prison several times because he prayed together with a few others in front of a hospital and obstructed legal abortions. At 83, his latest trial is on-going.
Organisations may base their work on whatever beliefs or convictions - but to receive public funding, they must not object to current legislation. This creates a problem for Christian organisations especially with regard to objecting to medical procedures.
The law states that “the public authorities shall not provide any assistance to associations in the case where the admission process or its operations discriminate on grounds of birth, race, sex, religion, opinion or any other condition or personal or social circumstance.”
In transposition of EU – law, Austria has adopted strict non-discrimination legislation in the employment sector. When a Christian religious official was looking for a secretary, his legal advisor asked the equal treatment commission before publishing a job advertisement: would it be permissible to reject a headscarf-wearing Muslim woman? The answer was no.
The parliament of Denmark voted to force the established Evangelical Lutheran Church to perform same-sex “marriage” ceremonies inside their sanctuaries, although one-third of all the denomination’s priests say they will not participate in such rituals. The Danish parliament voted by an overwhelming 85-24 margin to compel churches to carry out unions for same-sex couples that are identical to heterosexual marriage celebrations.
Without exception, businesses are required under the Equal Status Act to offer goods and services to anyone who asks for them and the business cannot ‘discriminate’ on the basis of sexual orientation, marital status, etc. While churches are not forced to perform same-sex ceremonies, they might face fines if they do not rent out halls for receptions following a civil partnership ceremony.
Public bodies have to break up contracts if a violation of the principle of non-discrimination is established on the basis of the personal convictions of a private partner. A communal administration will therefore not be allowed to maintain a rental contract with a private house, used for civil marriages, if the owner of the house is found to object to an actual request for a same-sex marriage.
The Equality Act 2010 prohibits discrimination on several grounds, including sexual orientation, in the area of the provision of goods and services. While there is a vital exemption to the general prohibition against discrimination for religious organisations when providing goods or services, this can only be relied upon in limited circumstances and is not wide enough to cover many situations.
The report “Combattre l’homophobie – pour une école ouverte à la diversité” of the public administration in charge for the French-speaking educational system, imposes on public and private kindergartens from first enrolment until the end of secondary education to address homosexuality, stating that religion stigmatises. The report specifically addresses the Christian tradition as judgmental (mentioning Saint Paul, Saint Augustine, Saint Thomas Aquinas) and in an ambiguous analysis says that at certain times, the Catholic Church, and even popes, have performed homosexual rituals.
Parental consent with regard to abortion virtually does not exist. There is no legal requirement to inform the parents of a minor wanting abortion. However, if the minor needs full anaesthesia, the parents will need to give their consent.
The state is very strict with regard to political correctness in schools. It is very difficult for Christian teachers to debate with their pupils about abortion. One of the most striking cases was Philippe Hisnard, a French Catholic teacher who was revoked and suspended from teaching because he organised a debate about abortion in a class of “civic education”.
“Home-schooling” is prohibited. Parents’ rights are commonly understood to include the right to choose the form of education of one’s children, including the possibility of non-institutional education, such as so-called home-schooling. Germany, however, allows home-schooling only in the most exceptional circumstances. In general, parents do not have the option to home-school their children. Offenders have to pay fines, and occasionally prison sentences are pronounced.
Home-schooling is severely limited in Slovakia. In fact, it is allowed only for pupils of 1st - 4th class in basic schools, for disabled children, or for children in custody and who are not able to go to school for longer than two months for health reasons. Permission for “individual education” must be granted by the director of the district school of the pupil. Another major problem is that the person who teaches the pupils must have a pedagogical university qualification. As a consequence, home-schooling is very rare in Slovakia.
Spanish educational law includes a set of mandatory subjects under the generic category of Education for Citizenship which are indoctrinatory and violates the rights of parents. The Education for Citizenship curriculum is mandatory for primary and secondary education (children ages 10-16), and must be implemented into all Spanish schools (public and private).
According to the Education Act (2010:800) home-schooling is practically forbidden in Sweden. Home-schooling is allowed only when exceptional circumstances apply, which is hardly ever granted. According to the preparatory work of the government bill, permissions should be granted with great restraint, stating explicitly that religious and philosophical reasons are not to be considered as exceptional circumstances.
In 2011, the Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company, a public service company (UR), launched a sex education campaign in Swedish schools, called “Putting sex on the map” (co-produced by RFSU, a member of the International Planned Parenthood Federation), targeting children of lower secondary school age. Parents objected to the content of the materials, including explicit images and sex scenes, and scientific information, including physical and psychological risks of early sex debut and many sexual partners or abortion.
There is no parental consent with regard to abortion. Much attention was drawn to a case where an eleven-year-old girl had undergone two abortions in a very short period of time without parental consent. The Parliamentary Ombudsman held that it had gone too far and concluded that “it is obvious that a child of this age (11 years) does not have the maturity to consider the consequences of an abortion by herself.”
The region’s education minister Doña Ana González Rodríguez asked the schools to remove the words Christmas and Easter from their calendars.
In a Catholic church in Breckerfeld, vandals left cigarette butts on benches and in the holy water, chewing gum on the organ and broke the Easter candle. A similar incident happened to the Protestant community in Breckerfeld. Both churches are accustomed to leaving the church unlocked so that people can enter at any time to pray or visit. In order to keep out the vandals they have decided to install surveillance cameras and tighten security measures by locking the organ and the loft of the church.
On May 12th, about 30,000 people held a manifestation in favour of the protection of life in Rome. Graffiti on the way of the manifestation said: "All Catholics are Bastards." "The only Church which illuminates is a burning church." A cross turned upside down and the number 666 (for Christians an anti-Christian symbol) were spray-painted as well.
The altar of the church of Saint-Jean in Valence (Drôme) was purposefully set on fire on May 10. Parish priest Dominique Fornerod deplores the incident and ask the parishioners to pray for the perpetrators.
The words, “You’re entitled to your life. You have the right to decide” were used on the poster of a Spanish socialist youth organization, Galician Socialist Youths, along with a picture of a crucified woman in order to advocate for abortion. As a sacred symbol to Christians, using the crucifix in such a way is perceived by many Christians as a mockery of the Christian faith.
At a primary school in Vienna crucifixes had to be taken off the walls because a mother felt that they were a “religious paternalism”. This was possible when it turned out that less than half of the pupils are registered as Christians. For the first time since National Socialism crucifixes were banned from class rooms.
Unidentified perpetrators broke into the Holy Spirit church building at Vorsfelde-Wendschott and ransacked several rooms. All the cabinets were searched and the lamp in the entry way was smashed.
A small amount of money was stolen by unidentified thieves from the church in Marburg, Germany. In early May the thieves stole two loudspeakers from the same church.
Unknown perpetrators vandalised an Orthodox cemetery in the village of Crni Potok, not far from Topusko. At this cemetery, 17 tombstones were damaged, numerous crosses were uprooted and parts of tombs were smashed. A criminal complaint was filed with the police for disturbing the peace of the deceased.
Unknown perpetrators spray painted "We do not want your crosses" on the outside wall of the Catholic Cathedral of St. Pölten in the night to May 1st. The graffiti included crossed-out signs in cross-shapes, a swastika and a so-called Kruckenkreuz (an Austrian historic sign for the right-wing government between 1934-38). Next to a clearly anti-Christian message, the Christian cross was unfairly paired with the Nazi swastika.
At the annual “First of May” concert on Piazza San Giovanni in Rome the lead singer of the band “Management Post Operatorio” lifted a condom with both hands simulating the consecration of the Eucharist. While doing so, he said: “Take this all of you, and use it” before continuing with his song “Pornobisogno”. The concert was also broadcasted on Italian Television. The organisers of the “First of May” dissociated themselves from this incident.
Significant damage was done to the church of Riedlhütte in Germany. The microphones in the church were damaged and thrown into the holy water, a statue of Jesus on the altar was damaged and the four crosses in the church entrance were damaged. The total damage is estimated at 1,200 euros.
Three teenagers broke into a church in Crailsheim, German with the intention of stealing money. They broke through a window and the door of the office. A resident heard the noise and called the police who arrested the teenagers. They caused an estimated damage of 1000 euros.
Bombs wrapped in sex toys were sent to two different Catholic officials, the Bishop of Pamplona and a director of a Legionaries of Christ school in Madrid. The apparent perpetrator was the anarchist group calling themselves the Anticlerical Group for the Promotion of the Use of Sex Toys. Although the first bomb did not explode, the second detonated, injuring a postal worker.
In the course of a debate on the health care reform in the National Assembly of Austria, the spokesman of physicians of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ), Andreas Karlsböck criticised Health Minister Alois Stöger of the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) because he had discouraged or even prohibited the use of the common German greeting “Grüß Gott” (a greeting which literally means “Greet God”) in the Department of Health.
The recent attacks on pro-family mass-demonstrations included: tear gas against children, overbearing police force, unconstitutional state action and human rights violations, death threats against organisers on social media and stabbing of a protester, as well as violations of freedom of assembly.
Four activists of the feminist group Femen disturbed a conference at the university of Brussels. The topless women interrupted Archbishop André-Joseph Léonard's speech by throwing water out of Lourdes bottles at him. Screaming loudly they held up a poster "Stop Homophobia". On their bare chests they had written blasphemous comments.
Unidentified perpetrators broke into the St. John's church by forcing their way through a window. Almost every interior door was damaged. The offices were raided and cupboards and containers ransacked. Computer accessories worth several hundred euros were stolen. The case was taken over by the Crime police.
Vandals brutally damaged the parish church of St. Peter’s church in Wesel, Germany. They broke their way in and once inside broke more doors, ransacked the cupboards and drawers in the sacristy and tried to open two safes.
A church in Dettelbach, Germany, was broken into by unidentified perpetrators who stole a case of sacred objects. They entered by breaking the door of the sacristy and then tried to open a safe that was in a closet but they did not succeed. It is believed that the perpetrators escaped through the cemetery because one of the stolen items was found there. The damage caused is of an estimated 1,500 euros.
Alliance Defending Freedom and the Home School Legal Defence Association have asked the European Court of Human Rights to hear the case of a Swedish family heavily fined for home-schooling their daughter. Although the 13-year-old girl flourished in her home-schooling environment, local Swedish authorities fined her family the equivalent of more than $28,000.
In an appeal to the media in Germany, Mr Berger, writer and theologian, claims that people critical of the homosexual life style must not be allowed to voice their thoughts in talk shows any more. In the name of human dignity and human rights, critics ought to be silenced.
A youth attempted to break a safe in the St. James’ church in Saterland, Germany. He tried to escape but in his haste he caused an accident so the police caught him. It turned out he had broken into the St. Jacob’s church as well.
The anti-Christian campaign group Femen released a painting on their Facebook page on April 16. The painting is modelled after "La tentation de saint Antoine" and shows a naked Femen activist crucified, saying "Femen" instead of "Inri" on the inscription.
An unidentified perpetrator tried to break into the St. George’s church through the door of the sacristy. He used a screwdriver which left visible marks on the door. His attempt of burglary failed but the door was damaged.
During the night from April 14th, 2013, a Church in Hauture in Fos-sur-Mer was broken into by vandals. They broke into a window to get inside the church. After forcing open the tabernacle and finding nothing inside they stole money from the donation box for the candles. They left the church after defecating onto the organ, using the altar cloth for wiping.
At a radical LGBT manifestation in Lyon on Sunday, April 14, a participant held up a sign saying "Keep calm and kill Frigide Barjot". Comedian Barjot was the main person behind the pro-family mass demonstrations in France opposing same sex marriage and adoption.
A classroom ban on a Christian school teacher who condemned the “homosexual lifestyle” in front of year 11 pupils aged 15 and 16, has been upheld by the High Court. Science teacher, Robert Haye’s appeal against the decision to ban him indefinitely was rejected by the judge. After telling his class that the way homosexual people lived was a “sin”, according to the bible, he was sacked and prohibited from teaching at any school.
After defending a Christian colleague at work last year, some of Mrs. Halawi's Muslim colleagues complained to managers with unsubstantiated claims about her conduct. As a result, the management removed her ‘airside pass’ without properly considering her side of the story. This meant she was unable to keep working at the airport. Mrs. Halawi said that she had frequently been bullied by her Muslim colleagues for her Christians faith.
The Thomas More Law Center appealed the acquittal of musician Javier Krahe, a verdict delivered the previous year, and were denied by the Spanish court. The charge was derision of religious beliefs and offense against religious feelings as Krahe had previously made a video entitled “How to Cook a Crucifix” in which a crucifix was buttered and then put into an oven. The court decided that such behavior was within the limits of artistic freedom and denied that the charge could be upheld.
The Christian owner of a printing firm in Northern Ireland faced being hauled to court over his refusal to print a gay magazine. Nick Williamson says printing the material would go against his religious beliefs. But the editor of MyGayZine, Danny Toner, approached a solicitor and referred the matter to the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland.
In the night of Easter Sunday graffiti was spray painted in the churchyard of Santa Maria Assunta in Caorso. Drawings were made of satanic pentagrams with lots of red candles at both ends. A wafer was stuck on the door with the words "Animate vacuum" (empty soul).
As a consequence of a “foreign agents“ law that was signed by President Vladimir Putin last year, Russia caused headlines with its persistent attempt to crack down foreign funded non-governmental organisations such as Human Rights Watch and Transparency International. Now the latest reports state that the government has started targeting churches as well, e.g. fining a Catholic parish in Nowotscherkassk for 450,000 Rubles (11,200 Euros).
French Christians launched a petition for the resignation of Manuel Valls, French Minister of the Interior, and Bernard Boucault, Prefect of Police, and to sanction all police staff who committed abuses against the peaceful demonstrators at the Pro-Family-demonstration "Manif pour tous" in Paris on Sunday 24th of March. According to the organisers, the number of protesters had been greatly underestimated by the police, and in order to try to contain the actual 1,4 million the police employed unnecessary forceful measures.
Demonstrators for LGBT causes disrupted the Palm Sunday service on the 24th of March at the Cathedral in Metz, France. They were calling out slander, waving rainbow flags demanding that the bishop withdrew his support of the pro-family demonstration in Paris. The protesters were members of CNT and individuals.
On Saturday, March the 23rd, around 6.30 pm, an Iranian citizen aged 28, was arrested and taken into custody. He had broken into the Saint-Jean Cathedral of Lyon and seriously damaged the astronomical clock with an iron bar.
The church of Saint-Similien Nantes was vandalised on the night of the 23rd of March. Someone hid in the confessional on Friday night and then desecrated the stoup and vandalised the organ. An ermine chasuble, the organ bench and the light of the tabernacle were stolen.
During the night of March 22nd more than 20 graves were desecrated in the Elne-Cemetery in Pyrenees-Orientales. This happened before in 2008 when 248 graves were vandalised, almost all of them Christian tombs.
A Christian foundation for working with youth surprisingly lost its license to serve coffee and soda on the grounds that the youth centre was a gastronomical enterprise running on deficit and other permits would be necessary for non-profit activities. This was perceived as a governmental anti-Christian repression and is now debated in court.
Two youth entered the Church of St. Timothy in Termoli. One pretended to pray and when they were left alone made profane and sacrilegious gestures before stealing wafers and other sacred objects from the tabernacle. The theft was carried out on March 21 which corresponds to the satanic calendar as the "Second night of Tregenda”.
Another Catholic bookshop (“Notre-Dame-de-France”) was trashed on the 15th of March in Paris. The windows were broken and books thrown on the floor. There have been 26 reports of similar incidents over the past year.
Male pro-abortion protesters physically attacked several pro-life women, pushing and kicking them, during a rally on March 10th in Warsaw. The pro-lifers were part of the organisation Fundacja Pro and were carrying a controversial banner of a woman who died during an abortion.
The window of a Catholic bookshop, Our Lady of France (former "Bookstore Petit Pont ") was smashed.
On March 11th at around 7pm, the cantonal police were called to the scene at Saint-Nicolas in Fribourg, as an employee restrained two individuals who tried to hang a banner in the cathedral. They had also poured gasoline into the stoup to set it on fire.
Unknown perpetrator(s) damaged two graves and opened the coffins. The damage was detected by a member of the family of one of the deceased. At an old concrete tomb of an unknown owner, the tombstone was moved and the coffin was opened, and there was another case involving the desecration of an earthen grave. Some of the earth that had covered the coffin, which was apparently opened, had caved in. Around the grave were scattered bones. The incident was recorded by the police who performed an investigation.
Vandals entered the St. Michael's Parish Centre in Lecce and set fire to a holy book that was on the lectern. Fortunately the fire was put out before more damage was done.
Due to the Pope's resignation, in a caricature on its title page, the German magazine, Titanic, implied Pope Emeritus Benedict and his secretary, Archbishop Gänswein to be engaging in homosexual sex, uttering "Finally - sex!". This hurts religious feelings of the faithful, defames both and deepens a negative stereotype against church hierarchy.
The French Magazine Charlie Hebdo comments on the election of the new Catholic Pontiff with a caricature on its title page showing the cardinals having group sex and calling their sexual climax the descendence of the Holy Spirit. The faithful perceive this as hurtful and intolerant to their religious convictions.
On the occasion of the resignation of pope Benedict XVI and the conclave in which a new pope ought to be elected, the French magazine, Charlie Hebdo, featured a caricature on its front cover which shows the cardinals engaging in group sex. The words suggest that it is their sexual pleasure which the cardinals mockingly call the Holy Spirit.
Unidentified criminals burglarised and vandalised the Catholic church St. Josef in Oberhausem, North Rhine Westphalia. The act included desecration of the tabernacle, the altar and a relic. Several precious stones were taken and the registry was left in disarray.
The church of St. Joseph’s in Oberhausen, Germany was broken into by a burglar who after a failed attempt to enter through a window broke the door to the sacristy. He smashed an old alter relic when trying to open the next door into the church. The police were called and came with their tracking dogs but they lost the trail. All the cabinets in the church were broken and the contents dumped on the ground. Microphone and sound cables were torn out and on his way out the burglar stole gems.
Around 12 pm on the 22nd of February unknown perpetrators broke into the parish of Gummersbach, Hessen and stole the offertory. They pried it off the wall with scissors which seriously damaged the sacral space.
In the night of the 21st of February the registry of the St-Marys church of Lünen was broken into and gravely damaged. The place was left in disarray and the offertory was emptied.
Unidentified perpetrators broke into St Mary's Church in Lünen, Germany. They also vandalised the youth centre and the parish centre. Much damage was done but hardly anything stolen. In the youth centre one of the billiard tables was badly damaged.
A nail bomb was found in the Almudena Cathedral by a priest who reported seeing a suspicious looking bag on leaving the confessional. The Cathedral was evacuated before anyone was hurt by the home-made device, and the police were able to deactivate it without any damage being done.
Using a scissor a perpetrator pried the offertory off the wall of the Catholic Church on Dieringhauser street in Gummersbach. He also took the container and its contents.
Inverted crosses and 666 were found on two doors of the church. The three doors were dented as well, one whose neoclassical façade was rebuilt by Valadier in 1801, following a strong earthquake in 1789.
The church of Saint-Paterne in Orléans, France, became twice the victim of vandalism. Sometime during the night of the 11th to 12th of February, three of its poor boxes were pillaged, and then again from the night of the 14th to 15th of February, the door of the tabernacle was forced open and the ciborium emptied of its contents, the hosts spread over the floor. A covering was taken, but not the ciborium. In addition, the church Notre-Dame des Miracles, also in Orléans, was robbed.
The Spanish T-shirt company Kukuxumusu, known for its humorous T-shirt designs picturing cartoon animals such as sheep and bulls, printed a shirt with a bull dressed in Catholic bishop’s clothing flanked by two sheep, one of whom he is suspiciously touching. The other sheep is pulling up the “bishop’s”garment to reveal a devil’s tail. Many found this both offensive to their faith and a needless mockery of the serious matter of pedophilia.
Female activists undress and shout anti-pope slogans to comment the resignation of Pope Benedict XYI in the Paris Cathedral of Notre. Toplessly, they hammered at bells and shouted "Crisis of faith,", “Pope no more!” “Bye-bye Benedict!”, “No more homophobe!” and "In gay we trust!".
A twenty-four year old Polish Erasmus student in Cadiz was arrested after purportedly entering a church and throwing a crucifix to the ground, breaking the arms and legs off of the eighteenth century religious piece. A church official tried to detain the youth, but he escaped and was later apprehended by police to await trial.
French Catholics were insulted by an historically inaccurate article published in the French weekly, Le Point, on the 155th Anniversary of the pilgrimage site, Lourdes.
On February 10th a youtube video was uploaded by user „Porco Dio“ containing several blasphemous pictures and comments such as "God Swine", "Our Lady the Pig", "Bastards in white" (referring to priests) and “I would like to cook a nice plate of mixed things with that saint Joseph". They also ridicule the Lord’s Prayer.
During a prayer meeting in front of the abortion clinic of the l’Hôpital Tenon in Paris, pro-lifers were confronted with a counter demonstration of the group “Hâter la République” (“Rush the Republic”) which held up posters depicting Jesus carrying the cross comparing the cross to an UID, a contraceptive loop. It said: “Jesus too… had a loop!”
Two young girls entered the church and using black spray paint made a smiling devil who "hates the Vatican”, a slanderous stylized crucifix and wrote insults in English.
A Cologne university professor lost his job because he had spoken for Christian values and against “gay” marriages in a TV appearance. The university claimed that such views were not to be tolerated.
Within two days there were 4 arson attacks and 6 cases of vandalism in the parish of Saint Catherine and Saint Audenzio Pettenasco. The fire did not spread through the buildings but curtains were burnt and the wooden upper part of the entrance that supports the choir and a precious organ were damaged. A hammer was used to destroy the gate of the Shrine of Our Lady of Bocciolo, an awl was used on other doors and insults were written against the church.
The Church of Saint-Germain de Charonne in Paris was marked with the words, “The only church that illuminates is the one that burns.”
Right before All Hallows Eve three tombs in the cemetery of Banges D’Aude were vandalised, with their decorations and flowers destroyed. A complaint was placed with the Gendarmerie.
Burglars targeted the Catholic church of St. Boniface in Dorsten. They stole several items as well as cash and set the community centre on fire. According to the police the damages amount to several hundred thousand euros.
At the parish the Name of Jesus in Lyon the parish priest discovered on February 1st that the facade had been vandalised with the statue of Jeremiah removed from its niche and beheaded on the floor.
Unknown perpetrators sprayed on a wall of a shopping center on one of the thoroughfares in Ljubljana on 1 February 2013 a graffiti threatening Christians with violence. “Kristjani – klali smo vas 1945 – klali vas bomo 2013” - “Christians – we slaughtered you in 1945 – we shall slaughter you in 2013”, was sprayed in large letters on a wall.
A child at a Catholic school in France was punished for refusing to memorise a verse of the Koran in January 2013. At the school of Notre Dame de St Mihiel in the Meuse, Lorraine, a pupil refused to memorise a verse of the Koran as a part of a class on Islam. Two mothers arranged a meeting with the teacher to explain their disagreement with the punishment. Instead of removing the punishment or allowing the student to opt-out of the class the school director informed the mother of the punished child that she considers removing the child from the school.
In Amberg, Hochsauerlandkreis, on the 29th of January the sacred space of the Protestant Resurrection Church was devastated and chalices for communion were stolen.
During a visit by Mrs. Judith Reisman to the Faculty of Political Sciences at the University of Zagreb on January 29, 2013, the dean of this faculty, Prof. Dr. Nenad Zakošek, said, among other things: “If anyone indoctrinated them (students), then it is the Catholic Church.”
Christian parents are outraged over the contents of the governments new sex ed. programme. The government insisted and made opting out illegal, until the constitutional court found that the contents were against the law.
The French gay activist lobby groups hosted a pro-gay marriage on the 27th of January. Unlike the pro-family rally of the 13th of January, whose posters and messages focused on images or phrases that reminded onlookers of the traditional family and of children’s need for a mother and father, the 27th of January demonstration signs were largely aimed at insulting Christians and the Pope. Some signs were calling for the “Pope to tie his own fallopian tubes.” Others called the Virgin Mary the first “surrogate mother”, while still others stated that gays were "less likely to harm children than priests".
A poster advertisement for the play "Fine Dead Girls" contained an image with two Blessed Virgins embracing each other as lesbians. The play took place in the Zagreb theater Gavela. The poster was withdrawn after protests.
(October 2006 - January 2013)In October 2006 an employee, Ms Eweida, was banned from wearing a cross on a necklace by British Airways, UK. Court ruling in January 2008 upheld prohibition for Christians, but not for other religions' symbols. On January 15th, 2013, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Ms Eweida's rights had been violated.
The rights of homosexual couples trumped those of Christians, according to a ruling of the Employment Appeal Tribunal. The European Court of Human Rights dismissed the Christian applicant Gary McFarlane and left the balancing out of rights to national appreciation.
Lillian Ladele, a Christian registrar, was disciplined because of her stance on civil partnerships. The European Court of Human Rights dismissed Ladele’s application on January 15th, 2013 and left the balancing out of rights to the national authorities.
The Employment Tribunal found ‘No Discrimination’ despite the ruling that a Christian nurse cannot wear a cross for religious reasons though a Muslim can wear a hijab for religious reasons. On January 15th, 2013, the European Court of Human Rights confirmed that the hospital could make such policies - if justified by health and safety reasons.