The philosopher Julia de Funès calls for "a more combative secularism"

INTERVIEW

The subject has divided politicians and society for many years.

In France, the debate around secularism continues to be explosive, and is also viewed with curiosity, even severity, by part of the Anglo-Saxon world.

Guest on Sunday of the Great Meeting Europe 1 / Les Échos / Cnews, the philosopher Julia de Funès, denounces the many "amalgams" around French secularism, and calls for a move to "a more combative secularism". 

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"Even in France, it is misunderstood", notes Julia de Funès about French secularism.

The philosopher regrets a first amalgam "between secularism and secularism, as if secularism were the rejection of all belief".

However, she adds, "it is not at all that. Secularism is that the State has no religion, does not finance any cult, and that its speech exceeds that of religious authorities, whereas secularism is to be hostile to all beliefs ".

"On the side of the Islamists, secularism was very site amalgamated with secularism (...) then secularism was amalgamated with Islamophobia", continues Julia de Funès, according to whom Islamophobia, term which divides the political class , "is an intellectual con, an incredibly bogus term." 

"We have the right to criticize a religion"

"You can be Islamophobic", proclaims the guest of Europe 1. "We have the right to criticize a religion, Islamophobia, it is not racism".

"The trap of secularism was to accept a certain fairly tolerant secularism", continues the granddaughter of Louis de Funès, who calls for "to move to a more combative secularism, which refuses all the injunctions which go against the republican framework ".

And in this regard, she notes, 2020 may have been the scene of some change.

"I find that this is the first year where we dare to talk about this problem, and where we assume a certain combative secularism, where we refuse to submit to religious injunctions."