TITLE:
The Impact of Religious Fundamentalism on Places of Worship
AUTHORS:
Nikolaos Dimitriadis, Catia Cruz, Ioanara Silva, José Paulo Oliveira, Eliza Patouris
KEYWORDS:
EU, Good Practice, Places of Worship, Protection and Security, Religion
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.11 No.4,
April
19,
2023
ABSTRACT: Religion is a constant and integral part of
humankind. One of the core principles of religious freedom is free and safe
access to places of worship. This right cannot be guaranteed in all countries,
as shown by recent events, such as violent acts and terrorist attacks that seek
their main motivations in religion. This paper examines religious
fundamentalism from a conceptual and theoretical standpoint. The typological
elements that appear in many religious traditions are presented and explained
with the scope of identifying common characteristics across all types of
religious fundamentalism. The paper provides an overview of the need for consolidated
efforts to combat religious fundamentalism present in most European countries
at the moment, and protect places of worship, guaranteeing the free exercise of
the essential right of religious freedom. In this light we present PROSECUW (an
EU-funded project under the Internal Security Fund-Police programme) which aims
to enhance the protection and security in places of worship through training of
relevant professionals and knowledge exchange of good practices among EU
stakeholders.