Notes on Church-State Affairs

Abstract

A new law came into effect on March 5, 2012, in New South Wales requiring veiled women to uncover their face for identification purposes when giving statutory declarations and affidavits. New South Wales has the highest concentration of Muslims in Australia. Voters in Gföhl in Lower Austria denied Buddhists permission to build what would have been the largest Buddhist temple in Europe, with 67 percent of voters opposed to the temple. Bop Jon Sunim, the Buddhist monk who initiated the project, blamed the vote on a hate campaign. A group called the Austrian Society for the Protection of Tradition, Family and Private Property distributed pamphlets opposing the temple that included the phrase, “Buddhism in Austria, a wolf in the sheepfold.” The State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations began proceedings to close Greater Grace Church in Baku for failing to achieve compulsory re-registration. Members of the church say they are being denied their constitutional right to freedom of religion. This is the first case of its kind since the introduction of compulsory re-registration under the strict 2009 Religion Law.