There is no reason to allow the hijab in the police – Dagsavisen

Kamzy Gunaratnam, parliamentary representative from Oslo, warns that she will ask the program committee in the Labor Party to allow the use of the hijab in the police. This way we can recruit more Muslim women to the police and get a more representative police force, goes the argument.

State and church must be clearly separated.

We support Gunaratnam in his goal of increased diversity in the police. But we do not support the desire to make the hijab an approved part of the police uniform.

This debate is not new. It completely collapsed 15 years ago. Then the Norwegian Police Directorate stepped in to allow the hijab. The request was accepted by the Ministry of Justice, which assumed that it would now be possible to use the hijab in the police. Then it exploded. The opposition was massive from many quarters.

96.3 percent of Norwegian police officers said no to wearing the hijab. The then leader of the Police Union, Arne Johannessen, was one of the most vocal critics. “We have one police force in this country and there the uniform must be the same regardless of personal and religious values”, was his argument.

That argument still stands, we believe.

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The police in Norway represent the state and the law, not different religions and interests. The police are the state’s external face, and the only branch of the state that meets Norwegian civilians with a statutory right to use violence. It sets extremely strict requirements for police behavior – and uniforms.

The argument against allowing the hijab in the police has become even stronger in the 15 years that have passed since the last case was raised. In the meantime, Norway has abolished the state church, and we no longer stick with a state religion. Then it is difficult to see why we should allow the use of religious symbols in the police uniform.

It is often pointed out that countries such as Sweden and Great Britain allow the hijab as part of the police uniform. We would rather lean towards France, which runs the line that public servants cannot wear religious symbols. The reason is that France is secular, with clear distinctions between church and state.

This is Norway as well, from and including 2012. This is a development we are cheering for, state and church must be clearly separated. It would be a shame to stop that development by allowing religious symbols in the police.

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