Hellyer in Al Jazeera: On Muslims, Swimming Lessons, and European Secularism

In a judgment handed down on Tuesday, the European Court of Human Rights rejected a claim brought by a Muslim couple in Basel, Switzerland, who had refused to allow their daughters to attend compulsory mixed swimming lessons at school.

The ruling itself is unsurprising, and doesn’t come in a vacuum. The European court has been called upon to weigh in on issues of religious freedom before – and a pattern has emerged, which is difficult to ignore.

Two basic trends have materialised – the first is one where the court has adopted a more neutral kind of secularism, and where the judges have prioritised the individual consciences of the plaintiffs over that of the different authorities that, invariably, call to notions of “public order” to justify certain restrictions.

The opening of the article. The full text is at Al Jazeera.