The Worst Definition of Secularism Yet?

Jean-Yves Camus is a researcher at the French think tank IRIS.

A columnist on Hope Not Hate magazine, Camus' debut in Issue 1 of Hope Not Hate back in March saw him examine the rise of Marine Le Pen of the Front National, and her attempts to repackage the party founded by her fascist father. In France the rise of Islam over the past three decades has arguably been even more controversial than it has in the UK, due to French concepts of laicite - a historical form of secularism that seeks to keep religion out of the state. 

Camus should be well placed to explain this to English readers, and how (allegedly) the French far-right has begun to make use of this concept for its own aims. Instead, Camus writes of Ms Le Pen:

"Unlike her father, Marine Le Pen focuses on Islam much more than the old French colonial and anti-black and anti-Arab racist stereotypes. Also she opposes Islam in the name of secularism, a very French concept that is hostile to religions having an influence on people's minds. Traditionally promoted by the Left, this has been taken up by the FN (and Geert Wilders in the Netherlands and the Swiss Oskar Freysinger) as a way of promoting Islamophobia in a subtle way".

Two problems here. Firstly it is not hard to see how others will use such an analysis to contaminate secularism per se. Follow UK Islamists like Mo Ansar on Twitter, and that is already part of his game.  Secondly what is Camus talking ablout when he offers the definition of secularism that he does - what else is religion for other than to influence people's minds? Is it supposed to influence people's shoulders or their feet instead?

Lets hope Camus' original meaning has been somehow lost in translation.

 

Comments

[Matthew Franklin]

I presume he's pointing out how deep the laicite principals go. Secularism is generally a political / legal principal that gives political primacy to the state. The separation should by definition be on both sides - that is, the state should then stay out of religious affairs. It's an institutional, rather than personal, determination. What Camus seems to be pointing out here is that French secularism comes down to a concern about the mental effect on a person. Laicite - laicism - affects education, for example, where religious education has been removed from schools altogether. Critics say Laicite shows signs of 'anti-clericism' where, further than a separation of the institutions, the state is opposed to the clergy.