WUNRN
Also Via Human Rights Without
Frontiers
6-17-2009
Author: DPA
Polish Muslims Call for Change in
Law to Recognise Islamic Weddings
Warsaw - Polish Muslims want to
change a 1936 law that requires them to pray for Poland and the country's
president, Polish Radio reported Wednesday. The Muslim community also want days
off for Islamic religious holidays, in the predominantly Catholic country, and
to recognise weddings in mosques.
The current law requires all Polish
Muslims to mention the Republic of Poland and the president during Friday
prayers, and regulates relations between the state and the Muslim Religious
Association.
"A Muslim religious wedding
still doesn't have civil effects," said Pawel Borecki, of the Religious
Law faculty at the University of Warsaw. "Followers of Islam also still do
not have a guaranteed right to celebrate their holidays."
Poland's Foreign Ministry is currently
working with Polish Muslims on a draft bill that will abolish the required
prayer for Poland and change the legal status of the country's Muslims.
The new law would allow Muslims to
take days off for religious holidays and would make a marriage in a mosque
equal to a civil marriage, reported the broadcaster TVP Info.
Settlements of Poland's first
Muslims date back to the 14th century, when Tatars made their home in the
Poland-Lithuania Commonwealth and practiced Islam freely in exchange for
military service.
Today most estimate there are some
30,000 Muslims in Poland including some 2,000 Tatars. Muslims make up less than
0.1 per cent of the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic population.
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