What are the forces that govern the bond of liberal democracy? And what are the forces that undermine it? Those were some of the questions that came to my mind as I listened earlier last year (2021) to French Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquet defending a proposal for a law that was presented to the French people.
The place was majestic, the French Senate, which is as splendid as the Opera House. The proposed law under discussion was no less solemn, or at least its title, “Principles of the Republic and the Fight against Separatism”. Blanquet spoke to Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the architect of early modern France whose marble statue stood beneath the dome behind Blanquet, with Blanquit’s baldness clearly visible against Colbert’s long, curly hair. Now that it has been legalized, the fight against separatism is the latest chapter in the long war between the French state and organized religion. The law was designed with a push from President Emmanuel Macron’s administration to give the idea of ”laïcité” more official weight, a term that translates to secularism in its broadest sense, but it is much more complex and politically charged.
Everyone knows the trilogy of “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity” (the famous slogan of the French Revolution)*, but it is “laïcité” that draws the lines of the most fierce battle in contemporary France, as the term has become an expression of a unique French insistence that religion should disappear from Public domain, likewise religious symbols and clothing. No other European country has followed that path, and the word itself goes back to the Greek word for “the people” (laity) as opposed to the elite of priests. Laicism is not an analogue of freedom of religion (which is already guaranteed by the French constitution), but rather what it means is freedom from religion. At a time when religiously motivated terrorist attacks continue to intimidate France, laïcité has knotted its threads with questions of national identity and national security.
The law discussed by Blanquet in the French Senate at that time represented a multi-front political maneuver, and a classic example of the involvement of third parties in political battles by Macron, the “centre” politician who established a new political party and was constantly seeking to attract the votes of voters from the right The political spectrum is in his favour. First, the law came as part of France’s efforts to combat Islamic fundamentalism after years of violence, and second, it implicitly constituted a push against Turkey, the most prominent supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the influential group in some French mosques. Finally, because the law is based on the lofty thought of “principles of the republic”, it is considered a way to stop the right and the extreme right ahead of the national elections expected next spring, when Macron is likely to face again “Marine Le Pen” and her “National March” party, which is feeding On the fear of immigrants and Islam in a country where the proportion of Muslims is 8% of the population.
Last September, a network of jihadists appeared in court on charges of involvement in the 2015 Paris attacks, which left 130 people dead, 90 of whom died inside the Bataklan concert hall, and the attacks occurred just months after “Islamic terrorists” beheaded two magazine workers. The satirical Charlie Hebdo. For those who lived through those horrific times in the capital like myself, the trial brought back bleak memories, the largest in French history, with more than a thousand prosecutors, and expected to last nine months.