Illustration of high school students.

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LIONEL URMAN / SIPA

  • Ifop published on Wednesday an investigation commissioned by the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra) and the magazine 

    Droit de vivre

    on the perception of secularism by high school students.

  • Wearing religious symbols, right to blasphemy… The study sheds light on an inclusive vision of secularism among the young generation.

  • The survey also reveals a generational gap.

    More than one in two high school students is in favor of wearing conspicuous religious symbols in public high schools, against 25% for the rest of the population.

Wearing religious symbols, the right to blasphemy, caricature ... At a time when debates are focused on Islamo-leftism and on the bill on “separatism”, a survey on secularism, carried out by Ifop * and published this Wednesday, reveals a divide between high school students and their elders on the conception they have of it.

Wearing the veil, the attacks of 2015, the attack on

Charlie Hebdo

, the assassination of Samuel Paty ... The young generation has experienced these events at the same time as their elders in recent years, but would they advocate a more tolerant vision of this concept ?

In other words, does it want to break with French “secularism”?

A legal framework for the younger generation

According to this study, more than one in two high school students (52%) say they are in favor of wearing conspicuous religious symbols in public high schools, against 25% for the general population.

They are also 50% do not mind that public service employees display their religious convictions, against 25%, again, for the rest of the French.

"The age factor is a significant variable on the issue of secularism", recognizes Louise Jussian, researcher in the Opinion and Business Strategy department at Ifop, confirming "a very strong generational divide".

And for good reason, for the young generation, secularism is above all a legal framework serving to ensure the separation of religion from politics, freedom of conscience and equality between religions.

"High school students reject the idea that secularism consists in reducing the influence of religions in society", analyzes the specialist.

Only 11% of high school students share this point of view, against 26% among all French people, according to the Ifop survey.

High school students, true to the definition

For Eric Fassin, sociologist and professor of political science at the University of Paris-VIII, the young generation has a literal reading of the law of 1905 which defines secularism.

“These young people demand equality for religions.

That does not mean to recognize them all, but it means to discriminate none, ”decrypts the specialist.

"Why are we surprised that 'young people' are

faithful to the definition of 1905?

Why do we not wonder about what made the "old people" move away from the law of 1905?

It is not the "young" who have moved away from secularism, but the "old", "he says.

For all that, does the younger generation reject the vision of their elders?

For Louise Jussian, it is rather a question of differentiation in the way of conceiving secularism.

“Young people focus on another side.

They see no harm in religion being visible in the public sphere, where their elders tend to want to make religion invisible ”.

Obsession with Islam

Because for high school students, "secular" laws such as that of 2004, prohibiting the wearing of religious symbols at school, or that of 2010, against the full veil in public spaces, are "discriminatory" against women. Muslims (37%), reveals the study.

"Beyond secularism, it is all of society that young people perceive through the prism of inclusiveness", analyzes Louise Jussian.

An idea shared by Eric Fassin: "We see that young people are much more on the side of secularism, that is to say that they do not think of a religion in particular, but of religions in general, so that the "old people" think a lot more about a particular religion, and that is Islam ".

For the sociologist, this prism of the "old" had consequences for the following generations.

“The dominant discourses in the public space have perverse effects.

There is a whole generation which, as soon as it hears "secularism", immediately understands that we are going to talk to it about Islam.

It has effects, it provokes reactions, mistrust, ”explains Eric Fassin.

And the debate is not likely to die down immediately.

Adopted at first reading in the National Assembly, the bill confirming republican principles, mentioned above, will be examined in the Senate from March 30.

* This study, which surveyed 1,006 young people using the quota method (sex, age, type of education, sector and level, sector, academy, religious affiliation), was commissioned by the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra) and the universalist review “the Right to Live” (DDV).

Society

Teaching: Almost half of the teachers have already censored themselves on questions of secularism

Politics

Bill on "separatism": To a "sick" country, Gérald Darmanin proposes secularism as a "remedy"

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