On the occasion of the anniversary of the 1905 law to separate churches from the state, the French website Orient 21 said that the cabinet proposed a text that "affirms republican principles" but contradicts the letter and spirit of that liberal law that is far from the idea of ​​expelling religion from the public space.

He explained that the French Cabinet’s proposal issued on December 9 complies with the current campaigns aimed at fighting Islam under the guise of defending secularism.

In the

article he wrote for the site,

Alan Gresh notes that there is religious intolerance and non-religious intolerance, "the second of them is as bad as the first."

It is reported that the struggle for secularism in France was on a double front, against the Catholic Church as an arrogant and anti-republican force that did not want to concede any of its powers, as well as against those who wanted secularism as a weapon to destroy religions in general.

Bargaining and dialogue

Nevertheless - Gresh says - in each of the two decisive stages of the long march towards separating the churches from the state that began after the birth of the Third Republic with the secularization of education in the 1905 Law, successive governments preferred bargaining instead of intransigence, and dialogue instead of rivalry and civil war.

As a reminder - the writer says - there is no single definition of secularism, as several connotations have been imposed on this concept itself since its invention, and it has been increased after the right-wing rallied to this secularism that it fought with great enthusiasm in the past, which it now takes as a cover to attack Islam and Muslims, and thus the interpretations can be defended. The different aspects of secularism, at a time when some believe that secularism should lead to the expulsion of religion, especially Islam, from the public sphere, knowing that this has nothing to do with the text or the spirit of the 1905 law.

In public space

The writer pointed out that several rulings issued by the State Council confirmed the liberal interpretation of this founding text, which guarantees the right of the churches to organize themselves as they see fit and appear in the public space. Therefore, the State Council refused to grant municipalities the right to sell things designated for worship, and the courts rejected decisions. A number of mayors, and the General Assembly rejected the proposal to cancel official holidays with religious reference or those that require that all priests be of French nationality.

Some people often mention “Article 2” of the law which says, “The Republic does not recognize any debt, does not pay it, or supports it,” but - according to the writer - they ignore the second part of it, which practically contradicts the first part. "Nevertheless, it may include in the budgets, expenditures. Related to the training of priests in order to ensure the free practice of worship in public institutions such as high schools, colleges, schools, nursing homes, asylums and prisons.

Fake secularism

As for illusory secularism - as Gresh says - it exists only in the minds of those who use it as a weapon against Islam, and this is evident when mentioning some of the deficiencies of "secular purity", as the 1905 law did not extend at all to the region of Alsace-Moselle, and within a century it could not any A left-wing and right-wing government applied it there, and as a result France became the only country whose president appoints two bishops in Strasbourg and Metz, before legalization of them by the Church in Rome, and this law is not applied to New Caledonia and Polynesia.

As for Guyana, he recognizes the Catholic religion only, and its priests receive salaries. Finally, the French Consul General in Jerusalem - who is a representative of the Republic - attends, ex officio, dozens of masses annually and the priest blesses him.

The writer said that if the Church had been asked in 1907 to sign a charter affirming secularism and its laws or "the principles of the republic", which is an ambiguous concept, as is now required of the Islamic religion, the country would have plunged into a civil war, but the lawmakers of the third republic were wiser and careful not to Imposing rules for selecting or "classifying" clergy by the state.

Note that the Church was a much more threatening force, and much more dangerous to the republic today than the divided Muslim societies.

The writer concluded that an interpretation of secularism has been imposed today, through the statements of a number of political leaders and the speeches of the "false" "hateful" secularists who find it difficult to hide their racism, as if secularism is the proliferation of prohibitions, from preventing women from wearing the veil in the street and preventing them from accompanying On school trips and banning hijab at university.