OPINION: Is secularism official policy at AU?
If religious organisations are not appropriate at a "neutral event" like a student fair, as international director Rikke Nielsen recently put it in a response to a debate post by Habibe Holzkamp, then how will this affect representatives of the Church of Denmark at the university? And what about organizations like the Christian Students' Union and the Muslim Student Union, asks Anton le Fèvre, a international studies student at AU.
This is an opinion piece, the views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the writer.
Earlier this month, Omnibus published an opinion piece by Erasmus student Habibe Holzkamp, arguing that international charismatic church Hillsong should not have been allowed to attend the recent International Student Organisations Fair at Aarhus University. Holzkamp argues that Hillsong should be excluded due to its controversial teachings and a variety of unsavoury scandals involving discrimination and sexual abuse. Significantly, however, she argues that “the church and the university should be kept separate” as a matter of principle, and that outreach “must happen outside of the university environment”.
OPINION: A student organisation fair is not the right place for a church to recruit new members
In response, Rikke Nielsen, international director at AU, announced the development of new and explicit guidelines prohibiting the participation of religious organisations at events at AU. She reiterates Holzkamp’s belief in the separation of church and university, asserting that “the International Student Organisations Fair is a neutral event and religious organisations are not appropriate in this context”.
I am convinced that Holzkamp’s accusations constitute legitimate reasons for the exclusion of Hillsong at the event in question, and I could personally list a number of private grievances with the organisation. I must, however, take issue with her lofty rhetoric surrounding the separation of church and university and with Rikke Nielsen’s remarks suggesting that neutrality entails the absence of religious representation and visibility. These statements reflect a radically secularist approach to the legitimacy of religion in the public space which is troubling to this religious student – and problematic given AU’s own cooperation with the Church of Denmark.
A privileged position
Unlike Hillsong, the Church of Denmark is the largest religious organisation in the country and enjoys a decidedly privileged position at Danish universities. No other religious community provides student chaplains for Danish universities (who were also present at the Fair in question) and no other religious community directly relies on graduates from Danish universities to fill the ranks of their clergy. To be sure, I don’t believe this is problematic per se. But if the question of the relation between church and state is relevant at Danish universities at all, it should be in relation to the dominant religious institution in Denmark – not to religious minorities who do not exert any remotely significant influence on these institutions.
The idea of the separation of church and university has merits. To ensure a free, independent, critical and scientific institution, academic freedom must be safeguarded from foreign interests and influence, such as the forced compliance with religious dogma which universities were long subjected to. Indeed, state and corporate interest and interference are, today, along with public political pressure, far greater obstacles to academic freedom than religious control, which is, thankfully, a non-issue in reputable, European universities of today.
Is Laïcité official policy at AU?
It is, however, a reductive dilution of the idea to present the wholesale rejection of religious representation and visibility in the university under this label. Particularly Rikke Nielsen’s comments about the inappropriateness of religious organisations at “neutral events” reveals an attitude resembling the radical and distinctly French model of secularism (laïcité) which renders religion in the public space somewhat suspicious and prohibited by default. I ask, is laïcité official policy at AU? When is the presence of religious organisations appropriate, if not at “neutral” events and spaces? What distinguishes the presence of representatives of the Church of Denmark from those of other faiths and confessions? Lastly, and most importantly, are long-lived student unions such as Kristeligt Forbund for Studerende (KFS) and Muslimsk Studenterunion (MSU) still free to operate and attract members at AU – or are they also inappropriate and unwelcome at student fairs and other so-called “neutral” events?