Reports Reaffirm Secularist Principles in France
The Secularism Monitoring Center, a French government agency led by Jean-Louis Bianco, released two reports on October 3 which asserted the necessity of current laws that protect civil liberties and warned France’s political parties and the general public that secularism is a liberty that should not be politicized or used for political gain in upcoming elections.
Only seven months away from the presidential election, which will be held in April and May, “we wanted to recenter the debate regarding secularism that has frankly been getting out of hand,” declared Bianco. The reports reaffirm the secular principles that “have been adopted into the Constitution since December 9, 1905.” The reports also include a detailed list of “liberties and prohibitions” that clearly differentiate what is allowed and forbidden in public spaces with regards to religious expression. According to Bianco, the reports serve as a response to the social tensions in France these past few years “marked by movements advocating religious revival,” but also “a discriminatory twisting of secularism,” especially against Muslims.
The Secular Monitoring Center refers to a number of current events in France, particularly recent debates regarding the wearing of religious signs in public, that point to a weakening of the country’s secular values. These debates began almost two decades ago with the Islamic headscarf controversy, when schools and universities called to ban Muslim students from wearing hijabs at school. These controversies have only continued, with debates surrounding public Islamic prayers or the wearing of the “burkini” — a full-body swimsuit often worn by Muslim women. These controversies have divided public opinion over the years, and the Center is taking a firm stand against this division, standing strong in its belief that secularism should not be questioned and turned into political or social disputes.
The “balance that the country has found after a century of political conflict” should not be put at risk, urged Bianco. Secularism, as the report declares, “must unite us and should not be a source of division…. It is a liberty above all.” The goal of the report was to remind the public that secularism is a long-standing principle that should not be questioned nor exaggerated by candidates for political purposes.