The ECtHR, ¹ in common with many national courts, ² has often advised that maintaining State neutrality in relation to religion, its adherents religious organisations, and indeed secularism, is essential for the preservation of pluralism and the proper functioning of democracy. It would seem that both are now buckling under the pressure of responding to the traumatising effects of Islamic terrorism, a migrant crisis and a climate of populism. This points up another strong area of jurisdictional commonality, albeit one with some important aspects of difference.