Most Icelanders Don’t Want Church To Get Free Land

A healthy majority of Icelanders disapprove of the law enabling religious institutions to obtain free land to build places of worship, reports DV.

A recent MMR poll shows that 73% of Icelanders oppose Article 5 of the Christianity Fund Act, which was signed into law in the 1970’s.

The clause obliges municipal authorities to “provide land free of charge for the building of [religious institutions] and exempts such land from taxes associated with road building.”

This is the third year in a row this poll has been conducted with little change in general opinion.

In 2013, 45% actively opposed the clause, in 2014 51% actively opposed it and this year 50% actively opposed the clause while 22% were quite opposed to Article 5. Only 8% of those polled were actively in favour of the clause.