Straittimes, LONDON – A few days ago, L'Osservatore Romano, the official daily newspaper of the Vatican in Rome, printed a picture of Christ on its front page.
Nothing unusual, except that the photograph was accompanied by a quote from Pope John Paul II.
'Many things can be removed from us Christians, but the Cross, as a sign of salvation, we will not let them take,' he was quoted as saying by the newspaper which lays down the rule for the Catholic community around the world.
For a Church which still exerts vast influence worldwide and commands massive human resources, this was a rather curious cry for help.
But the Catholic Church now feels under siege in the very continent it has always regarded as its natural bastion: Europe.
Earlier this week, an Italian judge ordered a public school to remove from classrooms the sign of the crucifix, in order not to offend Muslim children.
And in other European countries, not only the idea of an organised, state-sponsored religion but also the very concept of Christianity as a defining characteristic of the 'old continent' is now being challenged.
Regardless of all the recent claims of unity and common identity, Europe remains a hodgepodge of nations with a bewildering array of legislative frameworks and traditions.
And nowhere is this more evident than in the official treatment of religion.
Church Line is overdrawn attendances throughout western Europe have been declining for years. Gone are the days when the Pope, or his hand-picked cardinals, could make or break governments with a simple word from the pulpit.
And although right-wing political parties still officially call themselves 'Christian', this is usually just a relic – the overwhelming majority of Europeans accept that religion is a private matter, rather than a state affair.
European politicians have known for years that there are no votes in waving bibles during their electoral campaigns.
They also believed that tackling the complex legal issues surrounding religion was simply not worth the effort.
So a conspiracy of silence descended on the continent: The Church slowly withdrew from political life, but politicians pretended not to notice.
This silence is now being broken, but only to reveal a complete legal mess.
For example, Italy's Constitution proclaims the separation of church and state. But a law from the 1920s decrees the display of the crucifix in state schools.
Britain's laws demand tolerance and equal treatment for all faiths. And yet, by law, the monarch can only be a Protestant, and remains the head of the official Church. More importantly, a British monarch can marry a member of any religion, except a Catholic.
And in Germany, the state is officially non-religious. Nevertheless, the authorities in Bavaria insist on displaying crucifixes not only in classrooms but also in government offices and officially funded hostels.
For many years, such anomalies did not matter. But they are beginning to matter today because Europe's ethnic make-up has changed substantially in less than 50 years.
Largely as a result of migration, Islam is now the second-largest religion in the three biggest European countries: France has five million Muslims, followed by Germany with roughly 3.2 million and Britain with 1.5 million.
And these figures show only part of the Muslim presence in Europe.
In the last decade alone, a war raged in Yugoslavia where Muslims were usually the victims.
What's more, Europe now has three countries where Islam is either the official or the predominant religion: Turkey, Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The Italian court ruling banning the display of crucifixes in schools came at the request of a Muslim human rights campaigner, and the dispute in France over the right of Muslim girls to wear the tudung in schools was prompted by a similar demographic phenomenon.
The reaction of most European politicians was predictable: They continued avoiding the substantial issue while counselling 'moderation' on all sides.
The result has been further religious tensions and even bigger legal contradictions.
In Germany, the country's highest court ruled recently that a Muslim teacher had the right to wear a tudung in the classroom – but only because there were no existing laws on the matter.
The court said states could still ban headscarves in schools, if they first pass a law saying so. Four state governments have said they would ban the practice.
Ironically, the biggest official Muslim country in Europe – Turkey – actively bans anyone wearing the veil from holding public office.
It can be argued that the legal treatment of the veil issue is not the only question affecting Islam. Most European societies have now accepted that they are multiracial, and that the days of a monolithic faith have gone.
But even liberals who fervently believe in the multi-ethnic character of their states are now deeply troubled.
For essentially, the demand is not for ethnic integration into European societies – something which Europe has done for centuries – but rather, for a separate existence of various ethnic groups.
And some of the demands fly in the face of other rights cherished by Europeans, such as equality of women.
The veil debate pales in comparison with the requests of some Muslim organisations in France for state-funded swimming pools where girls are segregated from boys; or the forced arranged marriages practised by some Muslim communities in Britain, which sometimes lead to suicides.
But one of the biggest problems facing the continent now is that of a backlash from eastern Europe, where Christianity was suppressed for decades by the communist regime but has flourished in the last decade. The idea of multi-ethnic states is alien there.
Matters came to a head recently over the attempt to draft a new constitutional arrangement for the European Union, which most East Europeans will join as full members early next year.
In order not to offend the sensibilities of its minorities or of Turkey, the West Europeans decided that no reference should be made in this Constitution to the Christian 'character' of Europe.
However, the East Europeans, led by staunchly Catholic Poland, still demand that a Christian provision be inserted.
For the moment, no solution is in sight.
In short, Europe is experiencing an identity crisis – from some of its own minorities who are demanding new legal arrangements, and from its eastern half, which is demanding that nothing be changed.
Of course, it can be argued that some of these problems are inevitable and that, given time and sensitive treatment, they will go away.
Yet, at least for the moment, Europe is a continent where religion is rapidly becoming a hot political topic – not so much because spiritual faith is deeply ingrained, but more because it remains a proxy battle for deeper fears over the loss of identity and sovereignty of individual states.
And when politicians refuse to deal with the matter clearly, everything lands in the courts, where more confusion is almost guaranteed.
Europe is not yet facing the 'clash of civilisation' which some have predicted. But this is only because it has not worked out what kind of civilisation it is meant to represent.
The author is Director of Studies at the Royal United Services Institute in London
