A/HRC/34/50/Add.1 10. Moreover, the understanding of religion and belief in Denmark very much focuses on the dimension of the person’s inner conviction. This seems to echo a Lutheran understanding of redemption through faith alone (“sola fide”). As a result, aspects of ritual or ceremonial religious practice are relegated into a mere external sphere, which allegedly has less relevance and is less worthy of recognition. From the perspective of non-Christian religions, this can become worrisome. Two issues arose in various talks over the visit, namely, the ban on ritual slaughter without prior stunning of the animal, enacted in February 2014, and public demands to outlaw religiously-motivated circumcision of male infants (see paras. 22-35 below). At the same time, the Special Rapporteur sees the difficulties that Jews and Muslims face in exercising their religious rites in relation to ritual slaughtering and circumcision as possible examples of an overly narrow understanding of what religion can entail and, accordingly, what freedom of religion or belief as a human right should cover. In order to find out what actually matters religiously to various communities, the culture of trustful communication between State authorities and religious communities is crucial and should be further cherished. 11. Public demands for the banning of religiously motivated male circumcision may also be paradigmatic of a societal discourse that can become quite polarized and hostile towards certain minorities, in particular in social media. The experiences shared by members of religious minorities confirmed that many of the challenges with regard to religious freedom that people currently face in Denmark — as in other Western European countries — stem from a lack of trustful communication within the society. This exacerbates negative stereotypes and hostility that members of religious minorities — in particular Muslims, who are often associated to terrorism and discrimination against women — suffer on a daily basis, with the result that they may feel increasingly alienated from the rest of society. In order to prevent cultural clashes around issues and promote mutual understanding, it is imperative not only to encourage more interreligious dialogue in the traditional understanding, which typically focuses on the “classical” monotheistic religions, but also to address and include those growing parts of the society that may describe themselves as non-believers or “religiously unmusical”. III. Special status and role of the Folkekirke 12. In European societies, the existing structures of an official or established Church are often perceived as an anachronistic relict. Scandinavian countries, too, have recently seen processes of disentanglement of State and Church, with the purpose of creating more autonomy for the Lutheran Evangelical Church, which has had an overwhelmingly strong impact on the history and culture of all of the Nordic countries. In 2000, Sweden finally separated State and Church and, in Norway, a similar process that started a few years ago is expected to lead to a formally independent Church in 2017. 13. The situation in Denmark is different. In spite of low rates of regular church attendance and a gradually declining percentage of membership, which currently still lies around 80 per cent of the population, the special status of the Evangelical Lutheran Church as the People’s Church (Folkekirke), as entrenched in article 4 of the Constitution, remains mostly unchallenged. The ongoing strong role of the Folkekirke with broad membership in a society that has become one of the most secularized worldwide presents a puzzle. It may become somewhat less paradoxical if we assume that, for many people, their appreciation of the Folkekirke may rest more on its role as a central element of Danish society and its cultural identity and less on its function as an institution of faith in the narrow sense. Be that as it may, calls for a formal separation between State and Church, albeit sometimes voiced, have never received much public attention, and court cases brought against the existing system have been both rare and unsuccessful. 5