Religious Freedom in Greece

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COMMITTEE FOR THE HELLENIC RELIGION OF DODECATHEON

P.O. Box 33050 Athens 100 36 Greece

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN :

OCTOBER 2003

GREECE

IS NOT A HUMAN RIGHTS COUNTRY

THE HUMAN RIGHT OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

IS NON-EXISTENT

We are the adherents to the Hellenic Religion of Dodecatheon, the traditional-

patrimonial religion of the Greeks since ancient times (more information about us

in our website: www.dodecatheon.com). We managed to survive through the

centuries, despite the well known persecutions against us based on the JustinianCode, which directed that we be put to death by torture, using metallic objects; andthe unquenchable hatred of the Eastern Orthodox Church for us.

The National uprising (the revolution of 1821-war of liberation from the

Ottoman Empire) did not lead to religious freedom in Hellas (Greece). On the

contrary, the Eastern Orthodox Church tried in every way possible to bring about

our extinction. We were the victims of an illegal, systematic and forced conversion

effort and our communities in mid-mainland Greece were harshly persecuted. At

long last, and after 1981, at which time the ruling political party's declarations weremade about respecting human rights, we decided to legally demand our Human

rights, as well. We rejoiced therefore when the 2462/1997 law was passed, which

validated the UN General Assemblys decisions concerning Human Rights. All this,however, was a false hope, since the aforementioned laws did not pertain or at least

did not apply to all Greek citizens. The laws were merely validated for the purpose

of presenting them to the UN inspectors, so that Greece would not be expelled fromthe United Nations!

The Greek State (Hellenic Democracy) has persistently denied us legitimacy. Our

belief and reliance in the system has cost us dearly, since the public appearance of a

number of our followers has made them targets of various illegal persecutions,

repeatedly! Unfortunately, the persecutions continue to this day and the right to

religious freedom is still lacking, completely, at least for us.****

Thus, bearing in mind the seriousness of thefollowing accusations, wecategorically and regretably denounce Greece as a country in which Human Rights

are not well protected, at least freedom of religion is not for all of its citizens

equally.

There are a number of Human Rights, that we enjoy in Greece of course, such asthe freedom of political affiliation. It is another matter entirely when we wish to

express freely our basic convictions in addressing fundamental rights questions,

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such as the one about Man or Cosmos, however!!

Man as a thinking being ponders on these questions. Proof of this is those who

have worked on the Human Rights issues from a philosophical point of view; the

authors of Human Rights charters, as well the governments that have affixed their

signatures of approval of these charters, all unanimously decreed, that the First

Human Right which is the root of all other Rights, is the one concerning religiousfreedom. This really constitutes the individual's primary defence against the states

authority and its abuse, and has been characterized by legalists as "the root of

individual freedom".

The right to religious freedom is, unfortunately, not equally afforded to all

citizens of Greece, since one must be either Orthodox Christian or else not exist at

all. Thus in reality, despite the attitudes and policies towards other rights, it is oflittle or no value at all for us, because of the prevailing attitude towards religion.

The above are not our own views, alone. It is a known fact that the European

Human Rights Court is continuously handing down convictions of Greece,

concerning freedom of religion matters.

****The Greek State by its laws divides its citizens into two categories as far as

religion is concerned. To those who believe in the three "Byzantine" religions

(Judaism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Islam), who are afforded the right of religious

freedom; and those of other faiths, denominations or creeds to whom this right

(Right of Religious Freedom) is denied. This latter group is afforded the right to

"holy worship" only, which is a even much less important concept, than Freedon of

Religion afforded the first group.However, the Greek Government does not even enforce existing laws and

illegally and arbitrarily and against the law and the Constitution, and ignoring its

own signature of approval on all Human Rights International Agreements, totallydeprives certain Greek citizens the Right of Religious Freedom, totally. It goes as

far as to disallow even the right to "holy worship", as well in certain cases!

Specifically:

1) The Greek Government follows a policy of religious oppression

the result of which is that the Eastern Orthodox Church has essentially become

a State-Enforced religion and the other faiths or denominations are barely if at

all tolerated. The following certainly point in that direction:

The obligatory, brainwashing quality catechesis in schools and thebrainwashing of members of the armed forces, the illegal association of public

schools with catechetical schools of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The special and favorable treatment of members of the armed forces who

follow the predominant faith of Orthodoxy. Even the ability of the military to

perform their duties and the loyalty of public employees is some how dependent or

related to their association with the Christian Orthodox Creed!!! The illegal maintaining of extensive files with records of the religious

preferences and beliefs of the citizens who serve as public employees, of students in

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schools and generally, of the totality of citizens, by the security related agencies of

the state.

There is an infinite number of laws in favor of the Eastern Orthodox Church,

including being exempted from taxation and being government supported; the

clergy, for example, the priests are paid by the government as they are considered

employees of the state. Naturally with funds obtained from our taxation in order tosupport a religion, that we do not espouse!!

There is the constant, indispensable and authoritative presence of the Eastern

Orthodox Church officials, ie priests, bishops etc, in every public or state activity ie

the non-religious celebration of national holidays, the religious oath of members of

Parliament and of the ministers of the Government etc. This certainly re-enforces

the idea of a State Religion. Generally and for some strange reason the State attributes compliance with the

law to having connection with the Eastern Orthodox Church. It also makes it

amply clear to every citizen that if one is not a Christian Orthodox, he is not in

compliance with the law and could be therefore subject to consequences!! An

example of this is a letter sent by an Eastern Orthodox Church bishop to Greekcitizens who had left Orthodoxy and had espoused another denomination, whom hethreatened with deportation, all this in 1970, no less!!!

A former Minister of Justice of the present Greek Government admits: The

Church wishes a state that guides its citizens towards a State Church in essence.

As a consequence, the state is in violation of fundamental human rights. Todays

influence of the Church is not due to its own strength based on its teachings,

spiritual work etc. alone, but also on the influence which the Church derives from

its state status. As such, the strength of the Church is not dependent on its ownmerits alone, but on borrowed strength from the state. The Churchs influence

acquires therefore an exogenous, artificial and unreal dimension to a great extent.

[Michael Stathopoulos, The Constitutional Guarantee of Religious Freedom,published in Law Matters Regarding Religious Variants in Greece, Athens 1999, p.

208]

In addition, the Greek Government does not react to the various illegal andterrorizing acts of the Eastern Orthodox Church against other religions.

Regarding us, especially, the Greek State leaves us without lawful protection, as

such we are subject to all kinds of pressure and without pretence, it grants the

Eastern Orthodox Church of Greece, the right to exert pressure for our extinction; to

hurl insults against us incessantly (officially, by its bishops giving sermons from

the pulpit); to have established offices in every bishopric in order to monitor andrecord our activities, this of course against all civil liberties laws [The Greek

Church Holy Synod, officially admitted the latter, as it announced it on Nov 6, 2001].We have officially denounced this fact to the official and independent PERSONAL

DATA PROTECTION AUTHORITY on June 6, 2000, but without any action taken,

to date, to protect us, however. Lastly, the Church attempts to hinder our religious

activities with any method possible, thus violating systematically articles no. 196and 199 of the Penal Code; and propagates enmity among us and our fellow

citizens!! Our activities are concurrently monitored by the police and other state

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security agencies. Regarding this, we made our protests known to the Ministry of

Public Order and the Ministry of Internal Affairs as the superior agency of the

National Intelligence Service; thus far we have had no response.

2) Specifically about the right to Religious Freedom in Greece.

The right to Religious Freedom has two aspects: The social right and that of theindividual.

a) The Social Right to Religious Freedom does not exist

that is a certain religion or creed does not have the self-evident right to exist as a

legal entity within the State's legal order of things. As far as the Greek State is

concerned religions are non-existent and unsubstantial, with the exception of thethree "Byzantine" religions (Judaism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Islam). The State has

granted those religions, special rights and privileges, such as the right to be a

legal person of Public Law, through specific laws.

The European courts have ruled, however, that such special treatment of certain

religions has to be sufficiently justified. The Greek State has never provided suchjustification, thus far.

Regarding the American State Departments report on religious freedom in

Greece and Greece's response, the following remarks have to be noted:

1. Greece asserts that all religions are equivalent. However, apart from the

aforementioned issues, no law exists that would allow a religion to be officially

recognized and to acquire legal entity status. The religions that have acquired legal

entity status, as the above mentioned three religions, have done so through special

laws enacted specifically for them. Consequently, there is surely no equivalencybetween all religions, since some have legal entity status being legal person of

Public Law and others cannot acquire it.

2. Greece asserts that the observation that minority religions are not allowed toown property is false, since all physical and legal entities in Greece have this right

to do so. This is not so, however, since a religion, obviously, not a physical entity

and since it does not have the ability to acquire legal entity status, therefore, cannotown property. An example of that is the recent troubles of the Roman Catholic

Church having been adjudged legally non-existent at all levels of the judicial

system!

b) As far as the right of the individual to religious freedom is concerned

The right of the individual to religious freedom has many aspects and only

members of the three aforementioned religions enjoy all of them fully.As far as the other religions or denominations are concerned, the Greek State

arbitrarily and by special legislation, grants to certain of them some but not allaspects of the many that are part of the right of Religious Freedom of the

individual.

For example, the Greek State recognizes and arbitrarily directs the official

recording in the National bureau of Public Records of weddings, baptisms, funeralsand naming ceremonies of certain religions or denominations, only. In order to

remedy this injustice against us we submitted two petitions in 1998, requesting to be

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recognized as a religion known and acceptable. We had attached a list of 2.500

signatures requesting this. We had wished to be included in the Registry of the

known religions in order to enable us to record sacraments and ceremonies

conducted by our religion in the Registry of Public Records, as mentioned above,

just as the other recognized religions do. Our petitions were not answered properly.

Additional aspects of the individuals right of Religious Freedom that we do notenjoy and especially protest against are (a) the right to dispose the bodies of our

dead by cremation which is the traditional Greek way of disposing the body, since

Homeric Age, and (b) the right to enter and have a Holy Service in our Holy Places.

The Greek Sacred Sites of Antiquity are today the property of Ministry of Culture as

Archaeological sites. We have submitted a lot of petitions requesting to be allowed

to enter in one or two Sacred Sites just once a year for a half an hours HolyService but the Ministry of Culture did not answer our petitions completely, as

such disregarding the right, that we are guaranteed, not only by the Constitution but

also by the UN declaration concerning the rights of indigenous people to their

sacred places, as well.

For all the other religions or denominations that are not favored by speciallegislature, the law of the Greek State recognizes the individual right of Freedom ofWorship, only.

We cannot understand the States justification for granting certain religions

rights and priviledges denied to others. The Greek Govermnment categorizes

religions without proper justification!!!

c) As far as the Individual Right of Freedom of Worship is concerned

it is, the ONLY part of the total number of rights which constitute the HumanRight to Religious Freedom that the Greek State permits to be exercised by

adherrents of 3d category religions and consists of establishing a Place of

Worship (this has a weaker legal status, than a Church or Temple According tolaw only the Eastern Orthodox Church has the right to have Churches or Temples).

This right is based on two Compulsory Laws passed in 1938-1939, a turbulent

period of dictatorship, and another law passed in 1942, during the Germanoccupation of Greece. The purpose of these laws was to hinder the granting of even

the minimal of human rights. These laws are unconstitutional from many aspects,

and certain of their provisions insult the citizens' dignity since they humiliate them

by permitting the Orthodox Church to interfere with their right of Freedom of

Worship.

d) Our petition for permission for a Place of Worship

Despite of all the above, we DID apply for permission to establish a Place ofWorship according to the aforementioned laws, on June 28, 2001. The petition was

accompanied by a list of significant number of signatures.

After the petition was received by the proper department of the Ministry of

Education and Religious Affairs, civil employees there informed us that our file wascomplete, ie we had supplied all the documents necessary and it was a FIRST, for a

file to be so complete and to be accompanied by many more signatures than were

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required by law. They also related to us that since, there were so many convictions

of Greece by the European Human Rights Court, exactly, for stalling to issue

permissions for a Place of Worship, this time such a permission would have been

promptly issued.

Despite of such assurances, our petition has not been approved, even though

two and a half years have passed!!!The Minister of Education and Religious Affairs, Mr. Petros Euthimiou, has not

responded to our requests for a hearing with him! From our several contacts with

the civil employees in the appropriate department we have been left with the

impression that our petition may never be answered, most likely!!

The official and independent authority CITIZEN'S ADVOCATE (Obdursman)

that we appealed to, has informed, rather in vain, the Ministry of Education andReligious Affairs that the Minister can not exercise, in this case, discretion, and

that he has the obligation to reply to our petition within a reasonable length of time

and to give a final reply or to explain the reasons for the delay, for not doing so at

all. Just the same was the opinion of the official and independent authority

Human Rights National committee.The Greek State tells us that even these humiliating long outdated laws, actually

referred as fossils and characterized as such in a scientific article written by the

general secretary of the department of Religions of the Ministry, do not pertain to

us, and that they exist only, to be presented to the UN inspectors, upon request!

In our case, the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs violates the

constitution and laws of the Greek State. It strengthens the obstacles set in our way

by the aforementioned laws and reckons that these laws are indeed very liberal and

it would probably be a good idea, if we were to return to the Justinian Code whichas mentioned above demanded that every citizen either be Christian Orthodox or

not exist at all!!

The Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs conceals the truth, in this case,from international organizations. According to the official position of the

authorized director of the ministry, who stated during the Conference for the

Religious Freedom on March 8, 2002, that Now, there is a speedy approval of allrequests for Places of Worship and that there is none pending for approval!

Similar assurances and explanations were also given to Mr. Rombles, who is

responsible for the European Council.

****

Thus, having exhausted all of our requests, petitions, appeals and pleas with the

Greek authorities and organizations; we now turn to the public and internationalorganizations and call on them to morally stigmatize and condemn the hostile

attitude of the Greek Government towards Human Religious Rights. In the hopethat international pressure will come to bear and force the Greek Government to

respect, at last, the Greek Constitution and its signature affixed on International

Human Rights Agreements.

The President of the Committee

Panaghiotis Marinis

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Athens, Greece, October 22, 2003

THIS DOCUMENT HAS CIRCULATED IN 2003 AND IT IS POSTED HERE IN

AUGUST 2009 AND NOTHING HAS CHANGED IN THE INTERVAL!

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Religious Freedom in Greece