Legislative changes with regard to tax exceptions for donations to civil society organisations have created a new fiscal regime (ANBI-regime). Central criterion within this new regime is whether the activities of an organisation are aimed at contributing to the general interest (algemeen belang). This regime poses serious questions for churches and their affiliated organisations as they are no longer de jure being considered as operating in the general interest. Furthermore, the legislator has not established a legal definition of ‘contributing to the general interest’. As a result a steady flow of jurisprudence has developed. In some judgements fiscal criteria seem to collide with the freedom of religion.

The last decade the wearing of face hiding clothes has come up as a rather new phenomenon in the Netherlands and surrounding countries. Although not that many people wear them, a rather wide aversion exists against this phenomenon and is directed especially against the Islamic burqa. A rather intensive public and political debat is going on concerning the allowance of those clothes. In different countries, among which the Netherlands, France and Belgium, the legislator is drafting laws which aim to forbid the wearing of these clothes. This article gives an overview of the debate on this issue in especially the aforementioned countries and reflects upon it, with a special focus on the freedom of belief and religion.