French Secularism

In a post on his ABC of Laïcité blog, Eddy Khaldi, a Mediapart Club Member, makes a strong case for putting an end to indirect State subsidy of Christian private education in France, including the charitable status of its funding bodies, on the grounds it contravenes secularism legislation.

A post on the blog "Droits des femmes contre les extrêmes droites" (Women's Rights versus Right Wing Extremisms) argues that the 'new secularism', focused on restricting freedoms of religious expression, is being used by the National Front as a means of discriminating against Muslim women.

Providing an expert opinion in Le Monde, an associate barrister at French law firm Flichy Grangé teases out the complex issues surrounding the legality of employers banning workers from wearing Muslim headscarves.

As this AFP article from 2015 shows, regular calls for a vegetarian option in French school dinners have long had the support of the government’s secularism watchdog as a workable solution to the pork-free controversy stoked by Nicolas Sarkozy.

Eugénie Bastié, reporting in leading right-wing newspaper Le Figaro, examines the controversial assertion made by would-be socialist presidential candidate, Vincent Peillon, that current mistreatment of Muslims in France, using secularism as a pretext, is similar to the persecution of Jews during the Nazi occupation.

Writing in Le Monde just before Christmas, French constitutional law expert, Didier Maus, explained the controversial ruling of the country’s top administrative court permitting the installation of Christian nativity scenes on the premises of ‘secular’ public institutions.

In this blog on the theme of French secularism, or laïcité, a group of Lille University masters students present a range of reports from the French media about issues related to the Republic's separation of religion from the state. Their English versions of the articles, complete with glossaries and notes, provide an insight into how the French press is treating this controversial subject.

Writing in the Huffington Post, a group of French senators from the centre-right UDI build a rhetorical case against what they consider the pointless and divisive plan, in the constitutional reform bill, to strip suspected terrorists of French nationality. Alongside the named authors, the article is also signed by two other UDI senators: Olivier Cadic and Anne-Catherine Loisier.

In an article from Libération that is openly critical of the state of emergency, Pierre Alonso summarises the guidelines proposed by French Ombudsman, or 'Defender of Rights', Jacques Toubon, which are designed to make the exercise of exceptional powers by the authorities a little more respectful.