According to the Kristianstadsbladet newspaper, the municipality in Bromölla, on Skåne’s north-eastern coast, argued that religious freedom hadn’t been compromised as religious freedom includes a “right to avoid public religious expression”.
However, Laurence Wilkinson from the Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom told Premier he questioned the justification behind the ban.
“They’ve essentially justified it on the basis that under the right to religious freedom there’s also a right not to be subjected to religion and a right to avoid public religious expression is how they framed it,” he explained during Premier’s News Hour.
“But of course, that’s usually understood in the context of a formal prayer to begin maybe a council meeting.”
The council have argued that the ban isn’t discriminatory as it affects all religions.
Wilkinson highlighted that Muslims would in fact be more impacted by the ban as their religion requires them to pray five times a day at a particular time.
“I think looking at the contents of it, it’s said to affect everyone so they’ve sought to justify it by saying, ‘listen, we’re not singling out any particular group here, we just don’t think people should be spending time praying during the work hours’.
“So the question is, is this specifically targeting Muslims?”
The ban will not apply to employees’ personal time.
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