Criminalizing Nazi Symbols and Gestures: The Australian Experience

Kerstin Braun is an associate professor at the School of Law and Justice, University of Southern Queensland.

Keiran Hardy is a senior lecturer at the Griffith Criminology Institute, Griffith University.

Far-right extremist groups around the world frequently use symbols and gestures associated with the Nazi regime in an attempt to spread hatred and intimidate communities. To curb these activities, some countries, including, for example, Austria and Germany, have long criminalized public displays associated with Nazism. In Germany, symbols including swastikas and SS sig runes are considered symbols of “unconstitutional organizations.” Publicly displaying or selling goods that depict them has been an offence under German criminal law since the 1960s and is punishable by a fine or up to three years in prison. Performing the Nazi salute in public, or making statements such as “Sieg Heil!,” is also illegal.

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The European “Cycle” of Neutrality

Matteo Corsalini is postdoctoral researcher at the University of Siena, Department of Social, Political and Cognitive Sciences.

Concepts of Neutrality in European Law

In liberal Western democracies, one possible reading of the principle of “neutrality” vis-à-vis religions is that states should encourage the flourishing of all co-existing faith- and belief-based systems that inhabit the public sphere. While this paradigm embodies an “ideal type of inclusive secularism,”[1] managing religious diversity under an egalitarian conception of neutrality does not mean that civic authorities must treat all groups seeking a place and a voice within the state with absolute impartiality.

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Ukraine’s Church-State Relationship May Be Changed Significantly: Interview with Dmytro Vovk

This interview was initially published by the Forum for Ukrainian Studies, an analytical online platform of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. Dmytro Vovk was interviewed by Heather Coleman (University of Alberta).

Heather Coleman: Even before the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, you argued that the war with Russia since 2014 had changed church-state relations in Ukraine. Can you describe that evolution?

Dmytro Vovk: There are two main trends here, which overlap. The first trend is securitization, and the second one is a drift to a more cooperationist model of church-state relations with respect to securitization. Since 2014, religion, and especially inter-Orthodox competition, has become a matter of security concern for Ukraine. Before the war, there were several academics, experts, and some politicians promoting this sort of “spiritual security” approach, but it was never a matter of urgent high political priority or comprehensive state policies.

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