One hundred twenty years ago, on December 9th, 1905, the French National Assembly voted in favour of the separation of church and state, establishing the principle of ‘secularism’ that is still today considered one of the intangible principles of the French republican state.
French-style laïcité (secularism), to which no one can hope to raise the slightest objection, has become untouchable—defended now even by those against whom it was initially used as an offensive weapon. But although it is now presented in an idealised and irenic light, ‘secularism’ as it was conceived in 1905 was never the wonderful republican openness towards all religious practices that is sold to us today. Conceived as part of a militant, openly anti-Catholic project, rather than as a hymn to tolerance, it is now showing its limitations in the face of the growing place of Islam in French society.
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