On French laicity in Combat
Laïcité à la française en question
Résumé
In recent years, due to some cases on Muslim clothing, "laicity," as a principle of the French Constitution, has been criticized upon its restriction of religious freedom. But behind these criticisms, there is a misunderstanding of the purpose of French laicity, equating it with the separation of church and state.. French laicity is more embodied as a combative principle, so it is different from the relationship between church and state in the United Kingdom and United States and other European countries.. In the French Third Republic, when laicity was formed, the government took all kinds of legislative measures to diminish the political influence of the Catholic Church, hence defending the newly born republican regime and individual freedom against church. After laicity became a constitutional principle in 1946, it serves as a constraint on the power of the state and ensures the state's neutrality; for instance, it recognizes the disciplinary power of teachers in public schools over students who wear religious signs. This paper argues that the key issue of the current disputes emerges from the circumstance where the society as a whole refuses the representation of religion, where laicity becomes a part of the national identity and where the church as formal social institutions is absent.
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