The phrase ‘militant secularism’ seems particularly inappropriate given that secularism is a neutral, not an extreme, position, and occupies a middle ground between repressive theocracies and regimes where any expression of faith is outlawed or at least heavily controlled. Secularism inhabits a slightly contested middle ground – the separation of religion and state seems like a simple, sensible idea but it’s not always precisely clear what this means in practice.
The UK’s secularism is clearly imperfect because the Church of England has a formal state role. When I looked at the section ‘current states with theocratic aspects’ on the Wikipedia entry on theocracy, I fully expected to find some mention of this – but the only country included turned out to be Israel.
If the UK falls short of secularism in one direction, France, it might be argued, falls short in the other. It is currently considering a draft law which would mean that nannies and childcare workers, even those working in private homes, could not wear religious symbols. In practice this is likely to have most impact on Muslim women. When I went to the rally for free expression in London we heard how important it was to distinguish ideas from traits we couldn’t change (such as race). But the French seem to be singling out one kind of idea – one’s religious belief – and subjecting it to scrutiny which seems discriminatory. Childcare workers are not to be prevented from wearing badges parading their political views, even though these may be just as strongly held and, to some, offensive.
When looking up coverage of the ban, I found a report from last year which included this rather sad story:
The education minister insisted that mothers in headscarves should not be allowed to accompany children on school outings. One mother banned from escorting her son’s primary school class for wearing a simple head-covering said: “I’m French, not a fanatic, I just want to be able to practise my religion without being ostracised.”
For me, secularism doesn’t mean excluding religion from the public sphere, and I find these laws illiberal and divisive. Secularism does mean that religion, or a particular religion, isn’t privileged. But it shouldn’t mean that religon is picked on, singled out from all other philosophies and lifestyle choices, for censorship.
