Switzerland: Religion teacher fired for criticizing Islam
The Catholic parish of Lucerne (central Swizterland) fired a religion teacher, 62-year-old Thomas Banwart, after he was denounced for some comments about Islam that were deemed “too negative”. According to the local weekly newspaper Zentralschweiz am Sonntag dated June 7, 2015, an adolescent who is a Muslim believer is said to have written, in 2014, a letter to the principal of a school in the city of Lucerne, noting that his teacher “systematically associated Islam with evil and hatred”. That same year the teacher had already been rebuked for “the critical, negative and one-sided way” in which he described Islam and that (once again according to the Swiss media) this went “against the purposes of interreligious dialogue on which the course was based”. For his part, the teacher asserts that the charges leveled against him have never been proved and he has filed suit with the administrative court for unfair dismissal.
(Source: apic – DICI no. 317 dated June 26, 2015)
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