Journal: Global Journal of Classical Theology
Volume: GJCT 16:3 (Feb 2020)
Article: A Note From Our Editor: “Muslims As Two-Faced”
Author: John Warwick Montgomery

A Note From Our Editor: “Muslims As Two-Faced”

John Warwick Montgomery

My legal specialty is international human rights law and I have defended with success religious liberties—in particular, the rights of Christians to evangelise—before the European Court of Human Rights: three consolidated cases against Greece (Larissis et al.) and Bessarabian Orthodox Church v Moldova. The Bessarabian Church case was regarded by a former President of the Court as the most important religious liberties case to come before the ECHR at that time (2001).

I therefore keep a close eye on cases involving Article 9 rights as guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights. Recently, a series of three lectures at Lincoln’s Inn (English barristers must be members of an Inn—a medieval guild) provided updates on the case-law of the ECHR. The lectures were given by a former Judge of the Court, Egbert Myjer, a distinguished Dutch jurist. (En passant, I cannot resist mentioning the irrelevant fact that, though called to the English bar at Middle Temple, I soon joined Lincoln’s Inn, owing to [1] its fine library, and [2] its superb wine cellar.)

In discussing recent cases under Article 9—the article protecting freedom of thought, conscience and religion—Judge Myjer focused on Osmanoglu and Kocabas v. Switzerland (Judgment of 10 January 2017).

In this case, Mr Osmanoglu, born in Turkey but brought up in Switzerland, returned as an adult to Turkey to deepen his knowledge of Islam. Whilst there, he married, and then returned to Switzerland. His pre-adolescent daughter was enrolled in a primary school requiring swimming lessons for all the children. The pupils were not separated by sex for these lessons, and Mr Osmanoglu objected on religious grounds. He lost at every level in the Swiss courts and, having “exhausted domestic remedies,” took his complaint to the European Court of Human Rights.

The Court conceded that he had a genuine religious complaint, even though the Qur’an demands the separation of the sexes only post-puberty under such conditions. But it decided for the Swiss government—on the grounds of “the margin of appreciation” and “proportionality”—that, in light of Article 9’s qualification that religious liberties can be limited where there are reasonable and legal grounds to do so for the public good. In the instant case, it was asking too much that the country provide separate swimming facilities or modify its educational curricula in primary schools to satisfy the concerns of hyper-devout Muslims.

As I contemplated this case, I immediately thought of the current, 18-month incarceration of an American evangelist in Turkey. In 2016, Pastor Andrew Brunson, an American citizen who has lived in Turkey for 23 years, was ...