Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Since its Revolution in the 1700's the French state has adopted a rather "militant" form of secularism known by the French term Laïcité.
Laïcité has commonly been translated into English as meaning secularism however this translation does not do the term full justice:
"In French, some other Romance Languages, and Turkish, laïcité (pronounced /la'isite/), Turkish: laiklik or laisizm, Italian: laicità or laicismo, is a prevailing conception of a secular state, that is, of the absence of religious interference in government affairs, and vice-versa. While it is thought that there is no English word that captures the exact meaning of "laïcité", which comes from the Greek λαϊκός (which means "layman"), it is related to the English word "laity" or "laymen", and "laicity" is the natural English spelling or rendering of the French term. Laicite is a main component of both liberalism and republican traditions.
There is a difference between laicity, a political theory aimed at separating politics and religion with the goal of promoting religious freedom, and secularism in the sense of the declining importance of faith in individuals' daily lives (although the terms "secularism" and "secularity" are sometimes used in the sense described here).
The conception of laicite is based on the respect of freedom of thought and of freedom of religion. Thus, the absence of a state religion and the subsequent separation of the state and of the Church is believed to be a prerequisite of such freedom of thought. Laicite is thus distinct from anti-clericalism, which actively opposes the influence of religion and of the clergy. Laicite relies on the division between private life, to which religion belongs according to it, and the public sphere, in which each individual should appear devoid of ethnic, religious or others particularities, and as a simple citizen equal to all others citizens. Thus, laicite is a main component of liberalism and of republicanism. According to this conception, the government must refrains from taking positions on religious doctrine and only considers religious subjects from their practical consequences on the inhabitants' lives." (Source: Wikipedia )
The concept of religious freedom in Roman Catholic France had been around since the 1500's at which time the Vatican allowed Protestants the right to worship however the power of the Roman Catholic clergy was ingrained with the structures of the state. This all came to an end with the French Revolution and the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen" in 1798. Articles 10 and 11 are said to be the basis of Laïcité.
The principles of Laïcité originated in the Declaration of 1798 but it was not until 1905 until they were codified into law. The law enshrined a number of already applied principles and they were these:
"(i) No religion could be supported by the state, either by financial aid or political support.
(ii) Everyone had the right to follow a religion, but no-one had an obligation to do so.
(iii) Religious education at school was strictly forbidden.
(iv)No new religious symbols could be placed in public places, including graveyards." (Source: French Secularism - Laicite)
This now brings me to today's post.
Alain Morvan is a regional educational official in France who has caught the international media light. Morvan has lead a "crusade" to stop the establishment of an Islamic school in the city of Lyon. His good efforts have not only upset some Muslims in the city but has earned him the wrath of the French government which has decided to fire him:
"France fired a top regional education official on Wednesday for vigorously opposing a new Muslim school and publicly complaining about pressure from Paris to stop obstructing its opening.
The Al-Kindi high school, in a suburb of Lyon in eastern France, finally admitted its first 22 pupils on March 5 after an eight-month struggle with school board head Alain Morvan that ended only when Paris intervened to permit it to open.
In rejecting three requests to open the school, Morvan accused its founders of being "fundamentalists" and said he would sign refusals to open it "down to the last drop of ink."
Government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope said Morvan was replaced because "his behaviour was not that of a senior official, whose task is to carry out government policy". (Source: Reuters)
As can be seen from above France has a long history of a particular form of secularism and one that has seen the banning of Muslim headscarves in state schools in the past. The problem with this case is not that Mr.Morvan was upholding those principles but rather that he engaged in his own personal crusade against the establishment of the Islamic school. This became so tiresome that even the French government had enough of him and finally gave him the sack.
Technorati Tags: Islam Moslems Muslims France Laïcité Terrorism Education Secularism School Alain Morvan
posted by Kashmiri Nomad at 22:15:00
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Have you ever heard the fact that there are no Christian churches in Arabia? If you answered yes you might just be wrong. The Arab emirate of Qatar home to Al-Jazeera television has begun work on building a purpose built Roman Catholic Church:
