{"id":61602,"date":"2025-07-24T18:41:44","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T16:41:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/?p=61602"},"modified":"2025-08-03T14:07:29","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T12:07:29","slug":"fired-shots-at-jesus-and-mary-former-green-leader-goes-on-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/07\/24\/fired-shots-at-jesus-and-mary-former-green-leader-goes-on-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Fired shots at Jesus and Mary: former Green leader goes on trial"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-126798\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Sanija-Ameti.webp\" alt=\"Sanija Ameti\" width=\"602\" height=\"316\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i><strong>Sanija Ameti<\/strong>, former leader of the Swiss Green Liberal Party and a convert to Islam, is going <strong>on trial<\/strong> for &#8220;disturbing freedom of worship&#8221; and <strong>&#8220;symbolic violence&#8221; against Christians<\/strong>. She had fired a gun at an image of the Virgin Mary.<\/i><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Zurich prosecutors have officially charged <strong><mark>Sanija Ameti<\/strong><\/mark> over gunshots fired at a <strong>religious image<\/strong> depicting Jesus and Mary.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The incident occurred in <strong>September 2024<\/strong>, when Ameti, born in 1992, was a board member of the <strong>Swiss Green Liberal Party<\/strong> (GLP) and a convert to <strong>Islam<\/strong>. Her act, clearly provocative, sparked a wave of outrage.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<h2>The shocking act by Sanija Ameti and the backlash<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The woman had <strong>armed herself with a handgun and bullets<\/strong> and used the face of the <strong>Virgin Mary<\/strong> holding the infant Jesus as a <strong>target<\/strong>. She then <strong>boasted<\/strong> about her actions by posting them on <em>Instagram<\/em>, only to delete the content later after strong <strong>public backlash<\/strong> on social media and beyond.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The <strong>Swiss Bishops\u2019 Conference<\/strong> also intervened, condemning the act as &#8220;unacceptable&#8221; and degrading to human dignity. Many noted that had the roles been reversed \u2014 if, for example, <strong>Muhammad<\/strong> had been the target \u2014 the perpetrator might already have been <strong>killed<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<h2>The consequences for Sanija Ameti and the trial<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ameti publicly apologised, but it was not enough to curb the serious and violent <strong>repercussions<\/strong> of her act. She was <strong>fired<\/strong> from the public relations agency where she worked and was also forced to <strong>resign<\/strong> from her position in the cantonal leadership of the GLP.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">On top of this, the <strong>Zurich public prosecutor<\/strong> has now <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rsi.ch\/info\/svizzera\/Spari-a-un%E2%80%99immagine-sacra-pena-pecuniaria-di-10%E2%80%99000-franchi--2989686.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">requested<\/a><\/em><\/strong> a conditional <strong>financial penalty<\/strong>: 100 daily fines of 100 francs each, with the possibility of suspension for two years, plus an additional <strong>fine of 2,500 francs<\/strong>. This clearly represents a <strong>deterrent and rehabilitative<\/strong> sanction, rather than a purely punitive one.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The charge is based on disturbing freedom of belief and worship, specifically for having <strong>&#8220;mocked, belittled, and insulted&#8221;<\/strong> Christian religious sentiment and for having committed an act of &#8220;<strong>symbolic violence<\/strong>&#8221; against those who identify with the image she gratuitously desecrated.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The trial, scheduled in the coming months, will seek to clarify <strong>how far<\/strong> the law will go in protecting religious sentiment, and to what extent <strong>&#8220;iconoclastic protest&#8221;<\/strong> can be tolerated in a democratic society that respects freedom \u2014 but not at the expense of others\u2019 dignity. The Public Prosecutor&#8217;s Office has announced its intention to participate in the trial, a particularly unusual step.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<h2>For once, the offense against Christians isn&#8217;t ignored<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Sanija Ameti<\/strong> has paid and continues to pay personally for her reckless act; <strong>there is no need<\/strong> for further persecution.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">There is, however, a sense of <strong>relief<\/strong> that, for once, a <strong>violent act<\/strong> against Christian symbols and religious sensitivity <strong>has not been ignored<\/strong> or downplayed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Still, one can&#8217;t help but <strong>wonder<\/strong> whether the episode would have been justified, defended, or even celebrated as <strong>artistic expression<\/strong> had it taken place in a theatre \u2014 just like when Andres Serrano submerged a crucifix in a glass of his own <strong>urine<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sanija Ameti, former leader of the Swiss Green Liberal Party and convert to Islam, goes on trial for &#8220;symbolic violence&#8221; against Christians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":3,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1598,1596,1595,1597],"class_list":["post-61602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-christian-symbols","tag-offense-to-religious-sentiment","tag-sanija-ameti","tag-violence-against-christians"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Fired shots at Jesus and Mary: former Green leader goes on trial - UCCR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sanija Ameti, former leader of the Swiss Green Liberal Party and convert to Islam, goes on trial for &quot;symbolic violence&quot; against Christians.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/07\/24\/fired-shots-at-jesus-and-mary-former-green-leader-goes-on-trial\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fired shots at Jesus and Mary: former Green leader goes on trial - UCCR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sanija Ameti, former leader of the Swiss Green Liberal Party and convert to Islam, goes on trial for &quot;symbolic violence&quot; against Christians.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/07\/24\/fired-shots-at-jesus-and-mary-former-green-leader-goes-on-trial\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UCCR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uccronlineng\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-24T16:41:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-03T12:07:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Sanija-Ameti.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Simone\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Simone\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/07\/24\/fired-shots-at-jesus-and-mary-former-green-leader-goes-on-trial\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/07\/24\/fired-shots-at-jesus-and-mary-former-green-leader-goes-on-trial\/\",\"name\":\"Fired shots at Jesus and Mary: former Green leader goes on trial - UCCR\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/07\/24\/fired-shots-at-jesus-and-mary-former-green-leader-goes-on-trial\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/07\/24\/fired-shots-at-jesus-and-mary-former-green-leader-goes-on-trial\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Sanija-Ameti.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-24T16:41:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-03T12:07:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/4532086d8bfbd5d026fa22701599d109\"},\"description\":\"Sanija Ameti, former leader of the Swiss Green Liberal Party and convert to Islam, goes on trial for \\\"symbolic violence\\\" against Christians.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/07\/24\/fired-shots-at-jesus-and-mary-former-green-leader-goes-on-trial\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/07\/24\/fired-shots-at-jesus-and-mary-former-green-leader-goes-on-trial\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/07\/24\/fired-shots-at-jesus-and-mary-former-green-leader-goes-on-trial\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Sanija-Ameti.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Sanija-Ameti.webp\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630,\"caption\":\"Sanija Ameti\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/07\/24\/fired-shots-at-jesus-and-mary-former-green-leader-goes-on-trial\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Fired shots at Jesus and Mary: former Green leader goes on trial\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"UCCR\",\"description\":\"Union of Catholic Christian Rationalists\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/4532086d8bfbd5d026fa22701599d109\",\"name\":\"Simone\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/author\/simone\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Fired shots at Jesus and Mary: former Green leader goes on trial - UCCR","description":"Sanija Ameti, former leader of the Swiss Green Liberal Party and convert to Islam, goes on trial for \"symbolic violence\" against Christians.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/07\/24\/fired-shots-at-jesus-and-mary-former-green-leader-goes-on-trial\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Fired shots at Jesus and Mary: former Green leader goes on trial - UCCR","og_description":"Sanija Ameti, former leader of the Swiss Green Liberal Party and convert to Islam, goes on trial for \"symbolic violence\" against Christians.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/07\/24\/fired-shots-at-jesus-and-mary-former-green-leader-goes-on-trial\/","og_site_name":"UCCR","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uccronlineng\/","article_published_time":"2025-07-24T16:41:44+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-08-03T12:07:29+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Sanija-Ameti.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"author":"Simone","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Simone","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/07\/24\/fired-shots-at-jesus-and-mary-former-green-leader-goes-on-trial\/","url":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/07\/24\/fired-shots-at-jesus-and-mary-former-green-leader-goes-on-trial\/","name":"Fired shots at Jesus and Mary: former Green leader goes on trial - UCCR","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/07\/24\/fired-shots-at-jesus-and-mary-former-green-leader-goes-on-trial\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/07\/24\/fired-shots-at-jesus-and-mary-former-green-leader-goes-on-trial\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Sanija-Ameti.webp","datePublished":"2025-07-24T16:41:44+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-03T12:07:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/4532086d8bfbd5d026fa22701599d109"},"description":"Sanija Ameti, former leader of the Swiss Green Liberal Party and convert to Islam, goes on trial for \"symbolic violence\" against Christians.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/07\/24\/fired-shots-at-jesus-and-mary-former-green-leader-goes-on-trial\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/07\/24\/fired-shots-at-jesus-and-mary-former-green-leader-goes-on-trial\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/07\/24\/fired-shots-at-jesus-and-mary-former-green-leader-goes-on-trial\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Sanija-Ameti.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Sanija-Ameti.webp","width":1200,"height":630,"caption":"Sanija Ameti"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/07\/24\/fired-shots-at-jesus-and-mary-former-green-leader-goes-on-trial\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Fired shots at Jesus and Mary: former Green leader goes on trial"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/","name":"UCCR","description":"Union of Catholic Christian Rationalists","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/4532086d8bfbd5d026fa22701599d109","name":"Simone","url":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/author\/simone\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61602"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61602"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61694,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61602\/revisions\/61694"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}