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The French Debate about Religion: Anti-Christian, Pro-Islam
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Religion; Posted on: 2008-01-19 15:53:27 [ Printer friendly / Instant flyer ]
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Not only is Islam a new element, but atheism, too, is now regarded as a “spirituality” by the current French government.
From the desk of Tiberge
Nicolas Sarkozy’s speeches on religion, last month in Rome and last Monday in Saudi Arabia, fuel a lot of controversy. In his Rome speech the French president defended the notion of a “positive laïcité,” and recognized the importance of religion in the daily lives of men who continue to hope and to aspire to a transcendent meaning of life. In Saudi Arabia he hailed Islam as “one of the greatest and most beautiful civilisations the world has ever known” and said that France and Saudi Arabia “share the same objectives of the politics of civilization.”
It is as hard to know how much of what Mr. Sarkozy says he believes himself as it is to define his terms. The total confusion in which the French find themselves on the question of religion and state confirms the belief held by some that the 1905 law separating Church and State is more of a handicap than an asset, now that Islam is one of the religions that has to be accommodated by “laïcité,” a legal structure originally meant only to separate the Catholic Church from the State.
Not only is Islam a new element, but atheism, too, is now regarded as a “spirituality” by the current French government.
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