The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights proclaim that everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including freedom to manifest their religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance. Even today, in our democratic societies too, this fundamental right is still sometimes restricted and meets with hostility and intolerance.Using concrete examples, the author compares and analyses the protection of the right to freedom of religion in the case-law of European constitutional courts and of the European Court of Human Rights of the Council of Europe, in order to establish whether there is such a thing as general European law in this sphere.