Berlin to Ban Religious Symbols

Muslim head scarves, Jewish skullcaps and Christian crosses may soon have to vanish from the workplace for a large number of the capital's public sector employees. The city-state's Interior Minister, Ehrhart Körting, introduced on Tuesday a bill that will ban the display of any religious symbols by those employed in the public sector, including teachers, members of the police force, and workers in the city-state's judicial system. The ruling coalition of Social Democrats and the Party of Democratic Socialism decided on the bill after months of deliberation.

Unlike the states of Baden Württemberg, Saarland and Lower Saxony, which have all passed laws banning head scarves from public schools, the Berlin draft includes symbols from all religious groups. “For us it was important not to differentiate between the religions,“ Körting said. And apart from the rulings in the other states, where only public schools are affected, the Berlin law will cover a much larger area of civil service. The law will affect about 60,000 of the city's 140,000 civil servants. “The government's duty to remain neutral has a central meaning in those areas where the public is exposed to the influence of the government,“ Körting said.

To be banned are visible symbols of a religious affiliation. Pieces of jewelry, however, such as a cross on a chain, are allowed. City-run kindergartens, adult education institutions and vocational schools will also be exempted from the ruling. Religious education in public schools will also not be affected.

But the government's aim of drawing up unbiased draft legislation has drawn criticism from Christian denominations. The Arch Diocese of Berlin said the conflict over head scarves could not be taken as an occasion for a general restriction of freedom of worship. Despite increasing religious pluralism in society “religiousness cannot be banned from the public realm and pushed away to the privacy of one's home,“ a spokesman said. The regional Protestant church added that in some circumstances the head scarf also had a political meaning and expressed cultural separation.

The introduction of the bill follows a decision of the Federal Constitutional Court last September. The court had ruled that the refusal to hire a Muslim woman based on her insistence on wearing a head scarf while teaching was illegal solely because the question fell within the jurisdiction not of local officials but of the state legislature. Shortly after the ruling was handed down, several states announced that they would pass laws banning the wearing of head scarves by teachers, including Berlin. The law will be deliberated this autumn and is expected to come into effect in 2005.