Legal Secularism in France Today: Between Two Paths
Résumé
French legal secularism, a large part of the so-called ‘laïcité,’ gives the impression of being a sturdy, time-honoured tradition, very stable in its practice and well rooted in its ideological foundations. This is the ‘official’ framework laid down by the French constitution, which goes beyond prohibiting relations between state and religions. It is, in fact, supposed to protect and promote the philosophical background of human rights and the philosophy of the Enlightenment within the Law. Furthermore, French legal secularism has evolved in parallel with social change, and hand-in-hand with the emergence of new common values such as pluralism and tolerance. In this advance, it is far from monolithic, subject to contradictions and driving in new directions. Consequently, French secularism is now facing two different paths: either it accepts religious pluralism with new social patterns that create and share, or it defends its secular specificity, mixed with a kind of public Catholicism, as a reaction against visible religious diversity and Muslim affirmation.
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