Montenegro’s Unjust Religion Law Has United Everyone Against it

Disapproval over this uncivilized piece of legislation that entered into parliamentary procedure few days ago has put a display of unprecedented unity into motion.

Negative attitudes towards the proposed law and its consequences have been expressed by Pope Francis, the Ecumenical Patriarch, the Russian Patriarch and the US Ambassador for Religious Freedom, Sam Brownback.

The latter emphasised that the proposed law should not just be "pushed through" parliament when religious communities have fundamental objections.

It is very rare to see all of these actors agree on any matter, especially on religion. This is because they all recognize the danger of a secular democracy trampling on religious freedoms and basic property rights in 21st-century Europe.

The first draft law from 2015 was withdrawn both due to public outrage and the negative opinion of the Venice Commission that was later leaked to the public.

The draft was reintroduced this summer, with only cosmetic improvements. This sparked more outrage. A petition against the law was signed by around 15 per cent of the adult population of the country and, by some accounts, the largest gathering in modern history of Montenegro took place during Pentecost.

The Venice Commission issued 23 pages of new recommendations and objections, emphasising that more dialogue was needed. In spite of these substantial objections, only a few lines of the text of the proposed law were altered by the government as its response to Venice Commission before passing it for parliamentary approval. Just to formally tick the box - "recommendations of the Venice Commission fulfilled"

The key recommendation of all stakeholders was that more dialogue with main religious communities was needed. This box...

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