Throughout the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church was a dominant social and political force in Western Europe.
France also had a special place by virtue of the fact that it was the eldest daughter of the Church after that, secularism became the dominant ideology within it.
Supporters and opponents of secularism have different views explaining the course of its development in France, which is referred to by the French historian Emile Polat, saying, "Our secularism has one history and two memories." Historians view the path of French secularism as a gradual process, considering the post-revolution period (1789-1806) as The first step in the path of secularization of politics, while the secular reforms of the Third Republic (1881-1905) constitute the second step.
Ahmed Kuru, professor of political science at San Diego University in his book "Secularism and State Policies Toward Religion: The United States, France, and Turkey" believes that the two propositions are not mutually exclusive, and while studying the ideological hegemony of assertive secularism as he puts it, Coro considers that the beginning of the Third Republic (1875-1905) marked a turning point. Decisive for secularism within France.
Corro says to Al-Jazeera Net that the approach based on continuity is also important for two points, the first is that the French Revolution (1789-1801) formed the ideological structure for building the secular state in the early part of the Third Republic, because of the importance it bears, which is confirmed by the American historian Marshall Hudson in the third part of his encyclopedia Venture of Islam, where he believes that Europe has known two fateful cultural transformations, namely the Industrial Revolution on the one hand and the French Revolution on the other hand.
From Revolution to Concordes (1789-1801)
In France, the monarchy sanctified the Catholic Church, but the French Revolution in 1789 abolished the monarchy to end the relationship between the Catholic Church and the state, but it was unable to establish a stable alternative, and thus France faced internal chaos as a result of the tension between the state and religion for more than a decade.
In July 1790, the National Assembly passed the Civil Code for the Clergy, which sought to create a national church independent of the Pope.
It required the election of members of the Church as bishops and priests swearing allegiance to the state, which forced the priests to choose between loyalty to the state or the pope.
Although half of the clergy swore allegiance to a state, others refused to surrender their allegiance to the state, leaving France.
This hostility between the French Republic and the Papal Church crossed the French borders, so the French forces took over the papacy in 1798, and the Pope's residence in southern France was decided until his death.
The opposition to the clergy continued in the French state until the borders of the Concordat stage in 1801, and the term Concordat refers to the agreements between the Holy See of the papacy and the state.
From Concordes to the Third Republic (1801-1870)
On July 15, 1801, Napoleon Bonaparte signed an agreement that brought him together with Pope Pius VII.
According to the agreement, the French state recognized Catholicism as the religion of the majority of the French people.
The agreement also institutionalized the authority of the French state over the clergy, which would make the state pay the salaries of the clergy and appoint bishops.
Moreover, the clergy would swear an oath of allegiance to the state.
The church also relinquished its claim to its expropriated lands, and the agreement led to a temporary settlement between the anti-clerics and conservative Catholics.
Despite the Pope's protest, the French state also passed laws to regulate its relations with Protestants in 1802 and with Jews in 1808 and 1814.
In the aftermath of the 1848 Revolution, the Catholic Church secured control of education.
In doing so, the Fallux Act of March 15, 1850 removed restrictions on private education in 1806. It allowed religious groups, especially the Church, to open private schools.
In 1864, Pope Pius IX announced a list of revisions to the Church that included its relationship with the state, affirming the necessity of the idea of secession, and that everyone enjoys freedom of religious choice.
During this period, anti-clerics (priestly order of the church) were in favor of the idea of republic, while conservative Catholics defended the idea of monarchy.
As the republican system was not in place in France at the time, Catholicism maintained its privileged place in French sociopolitical life.
From the Third Republic to the Vichy regime (1870-1940)
France's defeat to Prussia in the War of 1870-1871 marked the end of the Second French Empire.
Thus, the Third Republic was declared in 1870.
Judging from the laws promulgated in 1875, secularism began to consolidate in France.
During this period, Republicans used the term secularism as the core of their anti-clerical rhetoric, and advocated that Catholicism, in particular, and religion in general, should be removed from the public sphere.
France issued an important law on the path of secularism, on December 9, 1905, to be known as the "Law of 1905." A bill was drafted that included many aspects of religious life and attaches importance to freedom of conscience and worship (Article 1).
The 1905 law severely frustrated the church, as it gave the state ownership of all 87 cathedrals, plus 40,197 churches.
In this regard, anthropologist Talal Asad argues in Powers of the Secular Modern: Talal Asad and His Interlocutors that the state’s possession of church property makes the state respond completely differently to religious institutions and norms, although there is no A complete separation between state and religion.
Despite the absence of the word "secularism" in the 1905 law, Philippe Guigna, the French scholar of political thought, sees his book La laïcité: Histoire d'une singularité française in his book La laïcité: Histoire d'une singularité française) as an important turning point that made France the secular republic we know today.
Establishment of the Fifth Republic (1940-1958)
Conservative Catholics found an opportunity to challenge the secularists during the Vichy regime in the aftermath of the German invasion in 1940. As the Vichy government perceived it to be Catholic, it sought to eliminate competitors of Catholicism, including the Communists and even the Jews.
Marshal Philippe Pettin, President of France in the Vichy era, followed pro-Catholic policies, such as preserving the funding of Catholic schools, and reinstating crosses in public schools, which was welcomed by Catholic newspapers such as La Croix. On the other hand, the French Catholic Church condemned General Charles de Gaulle for his resistance to the regime. what is happening.
With the defeat of Germany in 1944, the Vichy regime collapsed, prompting the liberation government to stop funding Catholic schools and remove crosses from public buildings.
After the collapse of the Vichy regime the church tended to be less involved in politics, and the church and its allies realized that restoration of the monarchy was no longer possible, so they stopped opposing the idea of a secular republic.
When secularism became a fundamental principle of the 1946 constitution, the church did not oppose it as it did with the 1905 Law. Rather, the French Episcopate in November 1945 issued a declaration clarifying the acceptable and unacceptable aspects of secularism as it conceived.
French secularism and Islam in the colonial period
The French colonial empire dominated several Islamic regions from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century.
Algeria had a special importance among these regions, as the French state kept Islamic practices in Algeria under French control, which can be seen in the process of appointing imams and muftis.
This control continued even after the "Law of 1905", according to Ahmed Kourou, to make Algeria the first space that combines Islam and secular France in its contemporary form.
The first official recognition by the French state of Islam appeared in the aftermath of the First World War, on the occasion of the commemoration of the Muslim soldiers who fought with the French army during the war.
The French state built the Paris Mosque between 1922 and 1926.
This embodies the sole presence of Islam in French urban places until the 1970s. The French thinker Olivier Roy asserts in his book "Secularism Confronts Islam" that Muslims form a large and diverse spectrum of religious affiliations. Therefore, it is necessary to separate Islam. As a debt for suburban problems in France.
French Secularism and Postcolonial Islam
In October 1989, a public high school principal dismissed 3 Muslim students for their headscarves.
The issue has gained national significance, and Education Minister Lionel Jospin announced that he supports a solution based on dialogue between school principals and parents.
This made him the object of accusation among some intellectuals, who called for the necessity of banning the wearing of the headscarf in schools.
The State Council issued an opinion confirming that wearing the veil is not inconsistent with secularism, but the debate over the headscarf continued.
Proponents of the ban pushed for a new law on secularism, and a bill was accepted in the French General Assembly and Senate and signed by President Jacques Chirac, to take effect in March 2004.
Events expressing the tension between French secularism and Islam continued during the era of President Nicolas Sarkozy, and escalated after the attack on Charlie Hebdo journalists and illustrators in January 2015, leading to the recent crisis that French President Emmanuel Macron wrote chapters on.
Corro concludes by saying that Macron does not need to "build an Islam in France that is compatible with the Enlightenment", because this is already achieved, but it is secularism in its French model that needs to adapt to the system of Islam and try to understand it.