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Iceland - Religion

The US government estimates the total population at 332,000 (July 2015 estimate). The constitution provides for freedom of religious belief and practice, as long as it is not prejudicial to good morals or public order, and protects the right to form religious associations. It names Lutheranism as the state religion. The state provides the Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELC) with financial support and benefits not available to other religious groups. Religious and secular humanist or other “lifestyle” groups must register to receive state subsidies.

On July 2, 2015, the Icelandic Parliament voted to repeal the country’s blasphemy legislation. The crime of blasphemy had been on the books since 1940; the relevant legal provision stated: “[a]nyone officially ridiculing or insulting the dogmas or worship of a lawfully existing religious community in this Country shall be subject to fines or [imprisonment for up to 3 months.] Lawsuits shall not be brought except upon the instructions of the Public Prosecutor.”

The bill for repeal of the blasphemy provision was brought forward by three members of Parliament belonging to the Pirate Party. The repeal comes in wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks and in solidarity with its victims. The authors of the bill wrote that “[f]reedom of expression is one of the cornerstones of democracy. It is fundamental to a free society that people should be able to express themselves without fear of punishment, whether from the authorities or from other people.” Opponents of the draft law, primarily religious groups, argued that the new legislation would legalize hate speech and that the previous legislation did not criminalize criticism of religion. The Bishop of the Church of Iceland, however, publicly supported the legislation.

According to the national statistical institute, approximately 74 percent of the population belongs to the ELC, and 5.9 percent belongs to Lutheran Free Churches. Approximately 14.5 percent of the population belongs to other religious as well as “lifestyle” groups. The largest non-Lutheran group is the Roman Catholic Church, with 3.6 percent of the population. Approximately 5.6 percent do not identify with any religious or lifestyle group. The Association of Muslims in Iceland estimates there are 1,000 to 1,500 Muslims in the country. The Jewish community reports there are approximately 100 Jews. Foreigners constitute an estimated 80 percent of the Catholic population, mostly from Poland, other European countries, and the Philippines.

Religious groups, other than the ELC, and lifestyle organizations apply for recognition and registration to a district commissioner, who forwards the application to the Ministry of the Interior (MOI). By law the minister of the interior appoints a four-member panel to review the applications. The chairman of the panel is nominated by a university faculty of law, and the other three members are nominated by the University of Iceland’s Departments of Social and Human Sciences, Theology and Religious Studies, and History and Philosophy, respectively. To register, a religious group must “practice a creed or religion” and a lifestyle organization must operate in accordance with certain ethical values, and “deal with ethics or epistemology in a prescribed manner.” Religious groups and secular humanist organizations must also “be well established;” “be active and stable;” “not have a purpose that violates the law or is prejudicial to good morals or public order;” and have “a core group of members who participate in its operations, support the values of the organization in compliance with its teachings it was founded on, and pay church taxes in accordance with the law on church taxes.”

The law provides state subsidies to registered religious groups and lifestyle organizations. For each individual 16 years of age and older who belongs to any one of the officially registered and recognized religious groups and lifestyle organizations, the government allocates an annual payment of 9,888 kronur (ISK) ($76.25) out of income taxes, called the “church tax,” to the individual’s respective organization.

The government provided the ELC with approximately ISK 5.11 billion ($39.4 million), consisting of direct subsidies from the state budget as well as indirect funding from church taxes. The church tax also provided a total of ISK 324 million ($2.5 million) to the other recognized religious and lifestyle groups. The ELC operated all cemeteries, and all religious and lifestyle groups had equal access to them. The ELC and the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the state-owned University of Iceland had a cooperative agreement on training theology students for positions within the ELC. The state directly paid the salaries of the 130 ministers in the ELC, who were considered public servants.

Following repeal of the penal code provision prohibiting blasphemy, some members of parliament stated the distinction between religious hate speech, which remains prohibited, and blasphemy was unclear.

Because religion and ethnicity are often closely linked, it is difficult to categorize many incidents as being solely based on religious identity. In September 2015 Market and Media Research, a well-known market research company, conducted an online survey about public attitudes towards the construction of houses of worship. The firm emailed an invitation to participate in the survey to a portion of its pool of volunteer respondents assembled from the country’s national registry, resulting in responses from 986 individuals.

The poll showed 37.6 percent of the respondents opposed the erection of a mosque while 32 percent were in favor. The same poll registered 27 percent of respondents as being against the building of a Russian Orthodox church, while 33.4 percent approved of it; 21 percent disapproved of the building of a Buddhist temple, while 39.4 percent were in favor; and 11.9 percent opposed the construction of a pagan temple, while 50.5 percent approved. The poll also showed that 8.5 percent disapproved of the building of additional ELC churches, while 67.2 percent approved.