(LifeSiteNews) — A left-wing Swiss politician is facing heavy backlash for shooting a picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus.
Sanija Ameti from the Green-Liberal Party (GLP) posted pictures on Instagram of herself firing an air gun at a target depicting Our Lady holding Jesus Christ as a Child. She added the word “unwind” to her post, implying that shooting the image helped her to relax.
After facing outrage over her blasphemous actions, Ameti posted an apology and deleted the video, stating: “As a template for the 10-meter shooting range, I needed motifs that were visible enough. I only had the Koller catalog to hand, which was big enough. I didn’t pay attention to the content of the pictures. That wasn’t right. I’m sorry from the bottom of my heart if I offended anyone!”
However, Ameti specifically shot the faces of Our Lady and Jesus, who are clearly depicted as a mother and baby, several times.
Not even the president of her GLP party, Jürg Grossen, seemed to believe that Ameti was unaware of what she was doing. “This behavior by Sanjia Ameti is unacceptable. It was a deliberate provocation,” he said.
Ameti has since resigned from her position in the GLP in the canton of Zurich, and the GLP announced that it plans to expel her from the party altogether.
The 32-year-old Ameti, who was born in Bosnia to Muslim parents, has also lost her job as a consultant at the Swiss PR agency Farner. Only Operation Libero, a left-wing political movement in which Ameti is co-president, defended her, writing that it values Ameti as “a politician, co-president, and friend” while stating that her actions were “wrong and inappropriate.”
The Swiss politician may also face legal consequences. As Blick reported, the conservative Swiss People’s Party (SVP) youth organization filed a criminal complaint against her for violating religious freedom and freedom of worship, as the party announced on Monday morning. Nicolas Rimoldi, president of the pro-freedom movement Mass-voll, also announced that he would be pressing charges against Ameti.
Under Swiss criminal law, disturbance of freedom of belief and worship is an offense. Someone who publicly and vulgarly dishonors objects of religious worship could face a fine. However, according to criminal law expert Joel Haefeli, this legislation is very rarely applied as “The bar for its application is high in practice.”
Ameti claimed that she and her family have requested police protection because of alleged threats she received. “I’m not feeling well and I don’t know how much longer I can put up with it,” she told Swiss outlet kath.ch.