The Protagora association, which protects and promotes the rights of irreligious persons, has described as unacceptable declaring one's faith in a forthcoming population census and wants that question to be removed from the list of questions in the census form, calling on all those who are not practicing believers and do not shares the views of religious communities not to declare their faith just for the sake of tradition or peer pressure.
Protagora president Vesna Mihokovic Puhovski told a news conference in Zagreb on Thursday that the population census was only one example of how state and public services continually violated the constitutional provision on Croatia being a secular state.
The association warns that the wording of the question in the census form is unacceptable and incorrect because it asks citizens to state their faith rather than their religion.
Faith and religion are not one and the same thing, said Marijana Bijelic of Protagora. Faith is a very personal issue which does not always fall under categories as offered in the census form and it should not be of interest to the state, she said.
According to the association, also problematic is the fact that the census form specifies only the Catholic faith, which it considers suggestive and discriminating.
Bijelic said that for the census findings to be reliable, all possible answers should be stated in alphabetical order, or none, and that census takers should write down the answer given to them by the interviewed citizen.
Kemal Kremic of Protagora said the current census form only increased the already exaggerated number of members of religious communities, notably the Roman Catholic community, giving it unrealistic social importance and possibility of influence through secular authorities.
The association also objects to the census form for children containing the question about faith.
"That question is regularly answered by the parents who attribute their own religion to their children. Parents have the right to bring up their children in line with their own beliefs as long as the child's personal integrity is respected, however, a mature and responsible decision on one's own religion can be made only by a mature adult," Bijelic said.
The association also objects to the fact that census taking is not confidential and that in some cases, family members can provide answers on behalf of other family members.
The Croatian Christian Coalition also issued a statement today, saying that the question on faith in the census form discriminated against all religious communities but the Catholic Church, because members of other religious communities would have to state the name of their registered religious community instead of their faith.
The association's president, Mario Ducic, said the question on faith was formulated incorrectly, was unclear and stigmatised members of other religious communities as well as non-believers because they are not given the possibility to state their religious or other persuasion.
