This week’s issue of SSRN’s Law & Religion eJournal includes:
“Human Rights Issues Arising from the Implementation of Sharia Law on the Minority of Western Thrace” by Nikos Koumoutzis and Christos Papastylianos
This article examines the European Court of Human Rights’ decision in Molla Sali v. Greece, which considered for the first time the question of the compatibility of a religious community’s separate legal status with the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court ruled that the separate legal status of the Muslim minority cannot justify divergences from the application of the General Law, to the extent that such divergences violate Greek citizens’ rights enshrined in the Constitution and the ECHR, and it condemned Greece on the basis of “discrimination by association.”
“Freedom of Religion and Living Together” by Sohail Wahedi
This article argues that the singling out of Islam for special prohibitions – as illustrated by France’s burqa ban, President Trump’s travel ban, and anti-sharīʿa legislation in Oklahoma – is incompatible with the normative liberal approach to religious freedom that emphasizes egalitarianism and neutrality.