The Turkish Foreign Ministry has condemned the European Court of Justice’s decision to allow European employers to prohibit their employees from wearing the hijab at work under certain circumstances and conditions. In a statement, the Turkish diplomatic body said that this decision «is a new example of efforts to legitimize hatred against Islam and intolerance towards Muslims in Europe» and also «not only ignores the human right to freedom of religion, but also creates a legal basis for xenophobia.
Strong words… But the judges who made this decision had their own legal logic, didn’t they? In particular, they justified the possibility of such a ban by its equal application to representatives of all religious and philosophical beliefs. So is it appropriate to talk about its exclusively Islamophobic orientation? Such an objection would be quite convincing if it weren’t for one thing.
Almost simultaneously with the European Court’s decision, the EU’s executive body, its de facto government — the European Commission — announced that it would sue the authorities of Hungary and Poland for their systematic violation of human rights and discrimination against LGBT people. It was also announced that the EU government would no longer fund these member states for this reason.
And now let’s remember what Hungary is specifically accused of? It is specifically accused of banning the propagation of LGBT ideology among children. As for Poland, the main accusation against it is the ban on the public display of LGBT flags in several municipalities that have declared themselves free of this ideology.
In other words, as we can see, both Hungarians and Poles are being accused of the same actions towards the LGBT community that European employers have deemed lawful towards Muslims — the prohibition of public demonstration of their beliefs. And now, when the European Commission goes to the European Court of Justice, it will have to demonstrate how it understands freedom of expression and the ability to restrict it for different groups.
And something tells us that its arguments and decisions will be different for different groups…