[ALBSA-Info] Religion and ID cards

[Agron Alibali]

KATHIMERINI
ATHENS, Thursday, May 11, 2000 Updated: 05/11/2000
10:39 GMT 

Minister: Religion has no place on ID cards

Church members, like political party or football
supporters, may want to broadcast their allegiances to
the world, but such information should not be
contained in state identity cards, Justice Minister
Michalis Stathopoulos said on Tuesday, enlarging on
earlier arguments that deeply displeased the Church of
Greece.
Brushing aside government assurances that his initial
comments in a Monday newspaper interview had been no
more than personal opinions, Stathopoulos said anyone
who doubted him should look up a three-year-old law. 

"People, without paying much attention, think I am
causing trouble," the Athens University professor of
law and former dean told journalists in Thessaloniki.
"A personal reading of the law and of my positions
will show that what I said was but the simple truth,
of the sort we sometimes fear or hesitate to speak."

The Church upholds current practice whereby applicants
for police identity cards are obliged to declare their
religion. But Stathopoulos insisted that this
procedure is illegal, saying: "The identity card is a
state document, and the state will select the elements
of people's identity, taking the law into
consideration. The law sets limits to the use of
sensitive information... While the law exists, it must
be implemented."
 


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