Report 2011 [antikvár]

In December 2010, the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Chris-tians published its first report covering the years 2005-201 O.The response of the média, as well as the interest of politicians, intellectuals and international institutions was immense. In 2011, we continued to take much care to observe, research, document and inform about the phenomenon of intolerance and discrimination against Chris-tians in Europe. We were pleased to note that many who have focused exclusively on third countries that demonstrated outright persecution, are beginning to notice that the marginalization and restriction of rights and freedoms of Christians in Europe are alsó of concern and deserves our attention.2011 was marked by public discussions about religion - such as the one on the Nor-wegian killer Andres Breivik who was instantaneously and wrongly called aChristian fundamentálist". Anti-Christian prejudices needed a Christian equivalent to Muslim ter-rorism to prove true. A thoughtlessly and too hastingly attributed label was gratefully received by the world's média.A highlight of the year 2011 was a resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of OSCE, encouraging public debate on intolerance and discrimination against Christians in Europe. The resolution called for a reassessment of legislation which has potential to pres-ent negatíve ramifications for Christians.Another highlight was the famous'Lautsi'case at the European Court of Humán Rights. The Grand Chamber of the Court overturned the decision of the Court's first instance by clarifying that crucifixes in State-school classrooms in Italy - which conferred on the country's majority religion predominant visibility in the school environment - was not in itself sufficient to denote a process of indoctrination, and therefore did not violate the secularist parents Mr and Mrs Lautsi's right to freedom of religion The year 2012 alsó began with a victory for freedom of education, conscience and religion. On January 31 st, Spain stopped the compulsory class'education for citizenship' which nearly 55,000 parents had conscientiously objected to, and against which more than 2,700 judicial complaints had been lodged.There is more interesting news on freedom of religion that is expected this year. The Observatory will follow these processes closely. We hope that you will, too.Dr Gudrun Kugler, Mts, Director Vienna, March 2012