Belgium has banned the burqa “d’assurer la sécurité publique ” (to assure public security). France will likely follow in order to preserve itself as a “secular state”. Now someone in the UK has been arrrested for “abusive or insulting language” which is contrary to the Public Order Act that includes admitting to a passer-by that he that thinks homosexuality is a sin. It seems that religious freedoms are being dwarfed by the secularization of Europe.
Now I admit that there have been plenty of occassions when I wished the police would arrest street preachers so the third case may really be about public disturbance. On the other hand, those laws being passed against the burqa seem a bit more intense. As a United States citizen it seems odd that our country would hound China for not observing religious freedoms but I have not found many complaining about Europe.
Should this bother us?
the archives near Emmaus 
Europe has never understood religious freedom the way we do. In much of Europe, freedom from religion may be the more dominant sentiment. I turned in a paper yesterday on French Islam and it’s a fascinating subject, that’s for sure.
I do think we should be concerned and praying. I don’t think it’s the end of the world though 😉
Alex,
No worries about the end of the world (I am not even sure if that is part of my eschatological vocabulary…more like the end of the world as we know it). I do wonder if it will become a trend in the so-called “western” world to define secularisim this way. Then again, I am very ignorant of how Europe functions. This may not have any influence on the US at all.
yes, it should bother us, deeply. Europe deserately needs to be reevangelized.
Europe is where our spiritual heritage lies and what has happened there will probably happen here – part of their issues is all the hubub with the church battles (catholic and protestant) left a bad taste in people’s mouths. Here it will probably be too much mix between religion (religious right) and politics). The church here in the states has grown increasingly irrelevant and will continue to do so unless we change directions soon.