The archbishop of Vienna has advised Austria’s government not to add Jewish and Muslim dates to the list of national holidays.
“Both the Jewish and the Muslim community are not big enough in
Austria that their holidays should be holidays for the entire
population,” Cardinal Christoph Schonborn said March 30 during a
television interview for the ORF broadcaster.
Schonborn said 80 percent of the country’s population was Christian and mostly Catholic.
“It is necessary to take into account the views of the majority of the people in the country,” he said.
Schonborn was responding to recent calls by Muslim leaders to declare
one day during Ramadan and the day of Eid al-Adha as non-working days
for Muslims.
The secretary general of the Jewish Community of Vienna, Raymond
Fastenbauer, told the local newspaper Kleine Zeitung that the community
supported making Jewish holidays national holidays, but that the idea
was rejected because of objections from the business community.
The Islamic Religious Community in Austria estimates the Muslim
population in Austria at 400,000 to 500,000 in a country of about 8.5
million. About 15,000 Austrians are Jewish, according to the European
Jewish Congress.
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2013/04/04/3123466/vienna-archbishop-opposes-recognizing-jewish-muslim-holidays#When:10:46:00Z
Thursday 4 April 2013
Vienna archbishop opposes recognizing Jewish, Muslim holidays
Posted @ 15:29
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