The government and the Catholic Church allowed Muslims to be buried in all of the country’s cemeteries, although not according to Muslim tradition. There was no Muslim cemetery or mosque in the country. The Muslim community owned two prayer rooms.
In February the state court granted the children of a family who are members of the Christian Palmarian Church of the Carmelites of the Holy Face the right to be exempted from their school’s swimming class. The court ruled the need to uphold the children’s religious beliefs and to protect them from psychological distress outweighed the interests of the school.
Funding for religious institutions derived mainly from the municipalities, according to parliamentary or municipal decisions. The government provided Catholic and Protestant churches annual contributions in proportion to membership; smaller religious groups were eligible to apply for grants for associations of foreigners or specific projects. All religious groups were exempt from certain taxes, but not from fees.
The two main representative bodies of the Muslim community, the Islamic Community and the Turkish Association, continued to collaborate with the government to establish an umbrella organization to receive state contributions to be used equitably for all Muslims residing in the country.
The government received no requests for financial support from smaller denominations during the year. Government policy was to provide financial support to smaller denominations that provided religious education classes at their places of worship outside regular school hours.
The government did not issue visas for religious workers, granting them short-term residency permits instead. To receive such a permit, applicants must have completed theological studies, be a member of a nationally known religious group, and be sponsored by an internally registered member of the official religious group’s clergy. The Immigration and Passport Office normally processed immigration requests for clergy.
The government granted the Muslim community a residency permit for one imam and a short-term residency permit for an additional imam during Ramadan. The government granted short-term residency permits primarily to the imams of the Turkish Association and other foreign Muslim institutions who agreed not to allow or preach sermons that incited violence or advocated intolerance. Clergy from other religious groups were required to abide by the same rules and regulations.
On January 27, the government held a public Holocaust commemoration ceremony at the Liechtenstein National Museum. Foreign Minister Aurelia Frick gave a speech at the ceremony, with several high-ranking politicians and diplomats in attendance. The commemoration focused on the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Israel and included an exhibition financed by the government and the Liechtenstein Friends of Yad Vashem. Children from several schools attended the ceremony.
Schools continued to include Holocaust education as part of their curriculum. The Liechtenstein secondary school invited an Austrian judge and historian to the school on January 29 to discuss and remember the victims of National Socialism in the context of the government’s public Holocaust commemoration. Secondary schools continued to hold discussion forums on the Holocaust to mark the Day of Remembrance on January 27.