Paris (AFP)
In a series of interviews with the philosopher Marcel Gauchet, Senate President Gérard Larcher is engaged in a reflection on secularism and the place of Islam, believing that "the challenge lies around acceptance by the "Islam of Republican Principles and Democracy".
"Before strengthening the principles of secularism, we must enforce them!" Is this the case? No. We must begin with this observation before asking about the recasting of relations between the state and religions, "says M In this series of interviews led by the journalist of Paris-Match Bruno Jeudy, and collected in a booklet of sixty pages published by the Senate.
The executive had launched in the autumn the sensitive task of revising the 1905 law of separation of churches and state in the autumn, but the desire for reform has since been muted.
"Most religions have gone through the process of reconciliation with secularism, and Islam does not have to do it spontaneously, so we need to bring about this" adapted "+ The issue is about Islam's acceptance of republican principles and democracy, and I do not think they are incompatible, but it takes time and effort, "said the president of the Senate.
For Mr. Larcher (The Republicans), "a new era must open for the state vis-à-vis the cults, not that of intrusion, but that of the accompaniment taking into account their needs and their specificities ".
"It is therefore advisable to accompany the Muslim community, with exigency, but it is first of all up to it to organize itself, to finance itself, to free oneself from external supervision".
Asked about the possibility that Salafists or the Muslim Brotherhood are trying to infiltrate the electoral lists in certain neighborhoods for the municipal elections of March 2020, Mr. Larcher believes that "the problem could arise in certain points of the territory". "The elected officials, the State must be attentive and adopt a responsible attitude".
More generally, the Senate Speaker affirms that "the exercise of a public policy of the religious fact must be able to reconcile the freedom of worship, the protection of the public order and the highlighting of the public and social role of the religions in view to strengthen national cohesion ".
He suggested that the "Central Bureau of Cults" at the Ministry of the Interior be "transformed into a General Secretariat of the Prime Minister, in order to leave the sphere of public order for the benefit of a new dimension: This is to ensure the respect of the law and to carry out an approach of accompaniment with regard to the different cults ".
? 2019 AFP