Ignoring other issues is difficult with the way this has been reported abroad (I”m always a bit suspicious of what media report retrospectivly).

I see arguments on both sides.

But fundementaly we are arguing for excemption to rules.

For instance lets seperate the practice of faith form it’’s iconography.

This law although “apparently” targetted against a specific faith (from what I have seen written) is actually not it is targeted against one asspect of the iconography (I”m chosing to seperate all symbols of faith from the faith as the two are not the same).

Now there is a secondary issue with this which is, what about building codes and sound polution.

Most church towers around the world where built long before building codes and sound polution legislation.

We see many many arguments as to why wind turbines should not be built based on building codes and sound polution.

Are the arguments any different?

Personaly I think all iconography on the exteria of new buildings should be inline with building codes thus should apply to all new buildings of worship as well.

I have no more wish to see it than I have a flashing neon billboard mounted on top of a house or other building for marketing or esthetic purposes (which is effectivly what iconograhpy is).

The rule should be applied across all faiths without exception.

Likewise bells and other sound polution should be stopped.

We have rules and laws for good reason why should some be excempt on the grounds of “the iconography of faith”?

Which brings forward the issue of retrospective applicability or is history excempt.

If buildings where built befor legislation they are normaly excempt, but not always, some safety codes of practice have no excemptions for the “greater good” of society.

All in all I don”t think that because something relates to faith (any faith) it should be excempt from laws that apply to all other areas of life (effectivly the excemption is a form of hypocracy and can easily be manipulated dishonestly).

It would be like arguing it is okay to build a building excempt from all codes because it “has esthetic appeal to modern artists”.

Unfortunatly the rational side of an argument normally gets hijaked when faith is involved, which from “press reports” appears to be the case with this legislation.

So my vote would be to remove all excemptions for all areas of life, as it makes things more honest and less liable to become a political football.