The secularity indicates the principle of separation of the political power and administrative of the State of the religious capacity. The word " laïque" designate the people or the institutions which respect this principle.

Secularity implies an official teaching from where the religious formation (in the direction teaching of the faith ) is absent. For as much, the teaching of the religions is not incompatible with secularity, as long as it is not absolutely necessary to describe “customs and habits”, and if one presents each religion from a point of view external (objective) with this one, for example within the framework of a course of history-geography.

Origins of secularity

Etymology

The word " laïc" is resulting from Latin laicus , of the same direction, itself resulting from the Greek laikos , who means who belongs to the people in opposition to the religious organizations.

The word was taken again by the religious language, to differentiate the Levites, dedicated to the service of the temple, of the remainder of the Juif people. The laic term was thus also used within the Catholic religion to nominate any person who is neither clerk, neither monk (what does not prevent it from being seen entrusting certain responsibilities within the Church, nor to be believer).

Origin of the concept

The concept secularity, as a separation of the religious capacity and the secular capacity is old, one could already see it in antiquity gréco-Roman. In the same way, at the 5th century, the Pape Gélase I {{er}} had stated the doctrines of the two swords aiming at separating the temporal power and the spiritual authority within the church.

The modern concept of secularity, him, emerges when the States decide to tolerate others Religion S that them (S) religion (S) of State. But the Freedom of worship changes nature: all the worships equal, and are subordinated there to the rules of the State. If a religious rule enters in contradiction with a rule of the State, the followers of this religion will be persecuted. Secularity is thus perfectly compatible with a restricted freedom of worship (independently of any judgment on the legitimacy of such a restriction, which would strike for example a worship practitioner the human sacrifices…)

The words of the family secularity thus recover two meanings:

  • the terms appeared at the 12th century and 13th centuries ( lay , laic ) and having for origin the Greek word laikos (of the Greek Laos , people) relate to classifications within the Catholic church. They mean “Which does not belong to the clergy nor with an religious order”.
  • the terms appeared at the 19th century ( laic , secularity ) are derived from the laic word and do not indicate any more one reality specific to the Catholic church but a principle of separation of the politico-administrative capacity and capacity religious. They mean “Which is independent with respect to the clergy and of the Church, and more generally of any religious confession. ”

Three principal designs of secularity

Three designs of secularity today are opposed.

French design

Principle
The French design is, in its principle, most radical of the designs of secularity (comparatively), though it is not total. The justification of this principle is that, so that the State respects all the beliefs in an equal way, it should not recognize any of it. According to this principle, the religious belief concerns the intimacy of the individual.

This principle was stated primarily in two times:

  • on the one hand, under the French revolution, in particular in the Declaration of the human rights and the citizen of 1789 (which refers however to a Supreme Être , to see supra) and which is taken again by the preamble to the Constitution of 1958, whose Ier article recalls that: France is a laic Republic ;
  • and in addition, by the law of December 9th, 1905 relating to the separation of the Church and the State, which introduces the principles of non-interference and separation with the religious institutions; the religious institutions cannot have of influence on the State and the State cannot have of influence on the Churches or their believers safe as a citizen: separation is thus reciprocal (contrary to the Turkish design, to see will infra).

The French design of secularity, although in its principle most radical, was extremely marked in its practical application by the fact that it acted of a length and perilous course not consisting in separating the political power from the religious fact as such but withdrawing it well influence of the Catholic church.

The provisions of law, of which it is question here, thus were the subject of an intense negotiation between the Catholic church and the legislator. It was necessary for the Church to protect its privileges, its inheritance and its networks and for the State to compose with the fact that good number of the members of Parliament and politicians resulted from the catholic mediums practitioners. The other great religions monotheists did not appear in the table of the negotiations, from where the imbalance of treatment which exists until our days between the various religions.

The principle of secularity applied only in Metropolitan France. In the colonies, with Moslem women majority, France took again the agreements of the Ottoman Empire (with which it France had conquered these colonies) with the various religious structures, those a their grateful public statute. From where, moreover, problems of integration in France as from the years 1960, when the immigrants of these colonies, which could hitherto publicly exert their religion, arrived to France where it was of tacit use to merge in the population.

Today, to the level of Europe, the attempts at inclusion of the concept of Christian values in the European Constitution tend to start a movement which always betrays this same fight of influence.

Concrete applications of the principle

The first and more important concrete translation of this principle in France relate to the civil statue: previously held by the priest of the parish which recorded the birth, the baptism, the marriage and the death of the people, since 1792, it from now on is held by the officer of civil statue in the commune (the mayor) and all the acts must be recorded in front of him (except for the baptism which is not a recorded act).

The religious ceremonies (church wedding, baptism, burial…) do not have any more a legal value and can be carried out only after the recording with the civil statue (except for the baptism). Those are only one optional.

For example, a Church wedding could not be carried out (if the participants wish it) that subsequently to a civil Mariage.

A French characteristic, it cannot have there religious criterion in a census made by the State.

By principle, secularity is a concept closely related to that of freedom of expression and opinion. It is allowed each one to practice the religion of its choice (or of not to practice a whole), as long as this practice does not go against the rights of others.

But this freedom is limited in certain cases. It is the case in particular civils servant in service who do not have the right to carry of religious sign.

In the same way, the ostentatious religious signs (of which the intention is political) are prohibited in the public schools.

Exceptions
There exist exceptions to the principle of secularity.

National exceptions

  • the law n°59-1557 of December 31st, 1959 (known as law Debré ) organizes the financing of the denominational school under contract. The State subsidizes the religious schools, in the condition that those sign a convention with him (known as private schools " under contrat"). Concretely, in exchange of the public funds, the school must be subjected to certain rules which will limit the importance of religious teaching:

    • the schools must accommodate the pupils even if their religion is not that whose the school is claimed and cannot select on examination of the school level;
    • the schools must follow exactly the national plans and the schedules of teaching envisaged; the religious teaching (which is optional for thedepending ones), cannot thus be integrated in another teaching and cannot in no case to injure the schedules of course of another teaching (what in practice, the total number of hours per week of teaching being limited, means on average two hours of religious teaching per week).
    • the schools are subjected to the control of the State, which supervises the respect of these obligations.

See also: Private education in France

N.B. : 90% of the private schools in France are catholic.

  • the Churches organize representative institutions so that the State knows which to call if it wishes to consult them (FPF, Consistoire). In the same spirit, since the creation of the national Advisory committee of ethics (in 1983), five personalities are indicated by the President of the Republic to represent their philosophical or spiritual family.

Regional exceptions
For historical reasons, there exist certain local exceptions.

  • With Mayotte (community of overseas), remains the principle of the recognized worships. The prefect names a cadi which applies the Charia out of matrimonial and family matter. This exception is a remainder of the colonial mode, because the law of 1905 then did not apply overseas.

  • In Alsace - the Moselle, areas improperly called certificated (the Legal settlement applies in theory only to the citizens of catholic confession, the organic articles governing the other worships), the ministers of religion is remunerated by the State and considered personal of the public office and the public school exempts courses of religious instruction (catholic, Lutheran, reformed or Jew). The recognized worships are very framed (nomination of the bishops by the Minister of Interior Department…) and the acts of civil statue continue to come within province of the State. Islam is not a recognized worship there (it did not have there Moslems in France in 1801), but one observes the same rules to him (construction of the mosque of Strasbourg…). The historical reason of this exception is that in 1905, the Alsace-Moselle did not belong to France (consequence with the defeat of the Franco-German Guerre of 1870); by preoccupation with an appeasing, in 1918, the French State their made it possible to preserve their own rules.

Design of the the United States of America

See also: Religion in the United States of America

The United States is a République strongly impregnated by the Christian values (puritan tradition for the New England, but also Baptiste, Méthodiste, and Catholique). However, as of the time of the American Revolution, the idea of secularity is a concept impossible to circumvent in America, inherited the Lumières.

Thus, the Declaration of American independence, written by the deist Thomas Jefferson in 1776, refers to creative God who legitimates the human rights. Jefferson was savagely attached to the separation of the Church and the State, as testifies its writings to them: I always considered that it was about a business between the man and his creator, in whom nobody of other, and especially not public, did not have the right to intervene. In one of its letters, Jefferson evokes the pressing need for a “partition wall” between the State and the Churches.

Other founding fathers of the United States decided in favor of the separation of the Church and the State:

  • George Washington: All also have the freedom of conscience and protections of the citizenship. The government of the United States gives any support for sectarianism, neither no assistance with persecution, and requires only that all those alive under its protection act as good citizens the religious beliefs of a man will not deprive it of the protection of the laws, nor of the right to obtain and exert the highest existing public office in the United States.
  • James Madison: The government does not have the shade of a right to interfere itself religion. Its smaller interference would be an obvious usurpation.
  • John Adams: The government of the United States is not in any manner founded on the Christian religion; it does not have any enmity towards the law, the religion or the peace of the Moslems.
  • Thomas Paine: Of all tyrannies which strike humanity, the worst is tyranny as regards religion.

Les American founding fathers in favor of secularity . One also notes the In God we trust on the tickets ( As a God, we believe ) who became an official currency of the United States the July 30th 1956 (later that it is believed, therefore), on the initiative of a deputy of Florida (Charles E. Bennett) or the oath of the US presidents on the Bible during the nomination, etc

Contrary to France, however, in the American Education system, the Federal state does not subsidize any religious school. Lastly, only the first amendment should not be forgotten belongs to the first constitution to guarantee to it not interference of the State in the religions and freedom of worship.

The definition of God to which refers the American State is thought and lived like the common point with all the religions, it thus does not act of precise God, attached to a definite worship. In a way different from France, where the State gathers by its indifference with the worships, the American State gathers by creating a common point which is the fact of believing. It is the astonishing consequence of a tolerant secularity: by refusing any official interference in the religious life of the citizens, the founders of the United States attracted in their country of many very religious immigrants, sometimes persecuted in their countries of origin: Mennonites, Baptists, anabaptists, Amish S, Quakers, Jewish, etc the strong American religiosity, which knows its peak during the Cold war, is thus not the wish of the founders of the country but the consequence of the conditions under which the country was built.

The religion is considered in the United States in a direction close to the etymology ( religio : to create a social link). Within this framework, agnostics and atheists are badly conceptualized in the system, because any person is attached by principle to a religion. A study of the Université of Minnesota published in 2006 shows besides that the “community” which inspires the largest mistrust in the United States they are neither the recent immigrants, neither homosexual nor Moslems, but well atheists. Nevertheless, mistrust that the atheists in the United States inspire depends enormously on the place of residence of the studied populations: inhabitants of the west coast as much as those of the east coast, i.e. a majority of Americans, accept atheism well best than those do it which live in the center of the country.

Turkish design

Turkey is currently a laic State from its constitution, and this since the November 10th 1937. The constitution of the January 20th 1921, does not indicate any mention of the religion or of secularity, the constitutional law of the October 29th 1923 modifies article 2 of it by indicating that “the religion of the Turkish State is Islam” ( Türkiye Devletinin dini, DIN-I İslâmdır ). This mention is preserved in the constitution of April 20th, 1924 (whose article 75 however proclaims the freedom of conscience and worship - provided that they are not opposed to the laws), removed on April 11th, 1928 and replaced on December 10th, 1937 by “the Turkish State is republican, nationalist, populist, etatist, layman and reformer” ( Türkiye Devleti, Cumhûriyetçi, Milliyetçi, Hâlkçı, Devletçi, Laik ve İnkılâpçı' dır ), the “six principles of Atatürk”.

It is the only laic country in the world Musulman. However, separation between the Churches and the State are not reciprocal as in France or in the United States. If the Churches cannot have of influence on the State, the State, on the contrary, can be allowed to enact rules as regards religion, from where the prohibition of the port of the veil at the public school and in the administrations.

Another divergence of designs, whereas in France, secularity is a formal requirement and a traditional principle (corollary, in particular, freedom of belief), it is in Turkey a requirement of law and order, like recalled it the European Court of the human rights in the business Leyla Sahin against Turkey (2004-2005).

With the difference in the French case, where by principle no member of a religious clergy is paid by the State, the Imams of worship sunnite are formed in schools of State. Consequently the various confessions are not treated with equality in Turkey, because the minorities Moslem Shiite, Jewish and Christian are discriminated, not having the same official assistances as the Moslem majority sunnite, namely that they do not have the right to be owners, to maintain their places worship and are often persecuted. Secularity with Turkish is thus only one appearance of secularity.

To note that the Turkish word Laiklik comes directly from French.

Today

Secularity gives place to debates. It must guarantee an equality of the religions, to respect the beliefs as well as the freedom of conscience.

At the legislative level

The law does not draw its legitimacy from a conformity to religious precepts (for as much, the law can contain articles which can be put in correspondence with such or such precept religious).

The laic States are more or less far away from the religious regulations according to the design which they have of this secularity. They defend the rights of each citizen against possible religious rules which would be in contradiction with the law and order, particularly with the rights and freedoms of each one.

At the legal level

The citizen is judged independently of his religious convictions .

At the executive level

The exercise of the political power is conditioned neither by the respect of religious regulations nor by the membership religious.

Secularity by country

See also: secular State

As from the moment when freedom of worship is ensured, one realizes that the influence of the Église S is not directly correlated with their legal status. For example the Sweden, country recognizing the evangelic Church Lutheran like religion of State until the 2000, is certainly one of the least religious countries of Europe because in one century the Church of Sweden became, like the Monarchie, simple a Folklore for the majority of the inhabitants.

On the contrary, of the laic country of constitution like France or the Portugal have an always long-lived catholic tradition. The following classification is thus based only on the legal status of the Churches, without supposing of their effective policy weight.

Constitutionally laic countries

  • Cuba: since 1959

  • France: article 1 of the constitution of 1958. ( See also the detailed article: Secularity in France)
  • India: 42e amendment with its Constitution of 1947, the Constitution Act (1976) made it possible to include the word secular in front of the words “ Democratic Republic ” in its preamble.
  • Japan: article 20 of the Constitution of 1947. During first half of the XXe century, and particularly during the Thirties, the militarist modes which controlled Japan had imposed the " shintoïsme of État" , exacerbated and instrumentalized form of the traditional Shintoïsme. Worked out and adopted during the American Occupation (1945-1952), the current Constitution integrates the Western designs of secularity and Separation of the Church and the State.
  • Mexico: article 3 of the constitution of 1917.
  • Portugal: article 41, paragraph 4 of the constitution of 1976, establishes that the State is laic. However, it is an only theoretical secularity, because the Concordat of 1940 with the the Holy See remained into force, just as the law n° 4 of August 21st 1971, often qualified relative law with the religious liberty, which also affirms the special statute of the Catholic church. This specificity was still confirmed in 2004, when Portugal signed with the the Holy See new a Concordat, making it possible to bring up to date the old one of which certain provisions, in particular relating to the missionaries activities in the old Portuguese colonies, were obsolete. New the Concordat recognizes certainly the religious liberty, but “guarantees the exceptional character of the relations between Portugal and the Catholic church without nothing entering in contradiction with the Portuguese legal order”, and shows well that the constitutional principle of secularity is only purely formal.
  • Uruguay: article 3 of the constitution of 1997 (All the worships are free in Uruguay. The state does not support any religion.)
  • Turkey: in the constitution, December 10th, 1937 by “the Turkish State is republican, nationalist, populist, etatist, layman and reformer” (Türkiye Devleti, Cumhûriyetçi, Milliyetçi, Hâlkçı, Devletçi, Laik ve İnkılâpçı' dır), the “six principles of Atatürk”, but in the facts the nonMoslem communities do not have the same rights.

Secular countries

Country recognizing with the Churches a special statute compared to other associations or whose constitution refers to God. The constitution of these countries establishes the separation of the Church (or rather of the religions, in the plural) and of the State.

  • Germany: The preamble to the constitution refers to God: “Conscious of its responsibility in front of God and the men,…”. The State collects ecclesiastical taxes whole with the income taxes (taken with the source, reason for which the religious membership is revealed with the employer who must make calculations necessary). There exists a religious instruction in the public schools, exempted to the members of a worship except contrary decision of the parents (or of the older pupil, generally as from 14 years); a course of “ethics” (or “practical philosophy”, “values and standards”) must often be followed by those which do not follow a course of religion.

  • Belgium: Since the foundation of the Kingdom in 1830, the members of the clergy of the confessions recognized by the State are remunerated by him. Currently, six religions are recognized: the Catholicism (to which a position of dominant confession of the Kingdom is also recognized), Protestantism, Anglicanism, orthodoxy, Judaism and the Islam, to which comes to be added the community known as “laic”, which is treated in a similar way and also receives remunerations of the State. Besides the “organized Laïcité” organizes ceremonies following the example other worships such as sponsorship, the marriage, the festivals of laic youth, the funeral…

  • Canada: The Canadian right does not know by name the concept of secularity. But an old jurisprudence recalled already that there is not " no the religion of État" in Canada (business Chaput C. Romain , Supreme court, 1955). It can thus appear astonishing that the preamble to the Canadian Charte of the rights and freedoms (1982) starts with the following statement: " Waited until Canada is founded on principles which recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of the law… ". But this reference to God has probably only one symbolic range. Because in Canadian right, the relationship between the State and the religions are subordinated to a legal framework where fundamental freedoms of conscience and religion occupy a preeminent place because of their constitutional character. However, the freedom of religion comprises freedom as well to believe and profess its beliefs, that the fact of not being forced to act contrary to its conscience or its beliefs (J. Woerhling). As in France, it implies for the State a certain obligation of religious neutrality. This is why a law which takes again on its account the precepts of a religion, for example by creating an penal offense on the basis of religious prohibition, could be declared inoperative by the courts within the framework of the control of the constitutionality of the laws (business Big Mr. Drug Mart , Supreme court, 1985, in connection with a law which prohibited to work Sunday). In the same way, the recitation of one prayer to the opening of the meetings of a municipal council is likely to carry reached, in a discriminatory way, with the freedom of conscience and religion of the citizens who do not share the same religious point of view (judgment of the Court of the rights of the person of Quebec). On the other hand, balance between the neutrality of the State and the respect of the religious liberty are not the same one as in France. Indeed, the Canadian right, including the Québécois right, shows definitely more " ouvert" with the individual expression of the religious memberships and this, even within the public sphere. For example, one authorizes the agents sikhs royal Gendarmerie of Canada to carry the turban rather than the lawful cover-chief (business Grant , federal Court of Appeal, 1995) and the pupils sikhs to carry the Kirpan, insofar as this one is carried under sedentary conditions (business Multani , Supreme court, 2006). In the same way, the port of the Islamic Foulard is tolerated in the public schools, in the name of the reasonable principle of compromise (opinion of the Commission of the rights of the person of Quebec, 1995). With regard to religious teaching at the public school, the situation is in theory likely to vary from one province to another. In practice, it tends everywhere towards a deconfessionnalisation of teaching. More and more, this one is characterized by a cultural, sociological reading and ethics of the religious fact. Thus starting from July 1st, 2008, Quebec will replace catholic denominational teaching and Protestant, offered in his public schools, by a program of ethics and multireligieuse culture. Last vestige, perhaps, of the school confessionnalism, certain Member States of Canada (as Ontario) are still held by the Constitution of 1867 to finance a separate network of Catholic schools.

  • Spain: The religious instruction catholic is obligatory. After the death of the dictator Francisco Franco, the Socialist governments which succeeded to him as of the re-establishment of the Royalty, made make the agreement of 1979 which stipulated: In the light of the principle of the religious liberty, the educational action will respect the basic right of the parents on moral and religious education their children in the school. In all the cases, the education diffused in the centers of state education will be respectful values of Christian ethics . But, at the request of the cardinal Antonio María Rouco, the February 26th 2002, the government of Jose Maria Aznar restores a provision of the time of the dictatorship, Concordat of 1953. According to this provision, article 27 of this legal settlement is given, to some extent, into force in December 2003. It stipulates: the State guarantees the teaching of the Religion Catholique like ordinary and obligatory matter in all the centers of teaching, which they public or are deprived, whatever is nature and the level . Catholicism thus became a matter cash with the examinations, the other religions having right only to one teaching of civic morals where the religions other than catholic are described as Hérésie S. This provision was abolished in 2004, as of the elections. The July 22nd 2005, the Socialist government made public a bill which would make the courses of Catholic religion optional to the public school. Reconsidering provisions founded by Jose Maria Aznar, the project also provides that the notes obtained by the pupils in this matter will not hope any more to obtain purses, to go to the university or to pass in higher class. If 82,4% of the Spaniards are declared catholic and 47,7% of them practitioners, new measurements seem constant by a majority of the population.

  • Italy: Country is under mode certificated since agreements of Lateran (1929), which stipulated that Catholicism was religion of State in Italy, and was built-in the current constitution, of 1948, which affirms in its article 7 the independence and the sovereignty of the State and the Catholic church, “each one in its own order”. Following legal problems presented by contradiction between the agreements of Lateran and the constitution of 1948, in particular out of matrimonial matter, a new Legal settlement was negotiated in 1984. If this one gives up the statute of religion of State of the Catholic church, he affirms on the other hand that “the principles of Catholicism belong to the historical heritage of the Italian people” and maintains the teaching of the Catholic religion in the schools.

  • Ireland: Although not being under certificated mode, the country is strongly marked by its catholic tradition. The constitution refers to Très Holy Trinity, and a particular status is granted to the Catholic church, which plays a big role in the country.

  • Luxembourg

  • Russia: The constitution of 1993 poses the principles of secularity in the federation of Russia. However, since the fall of the Communist regime, the country knows a revival of the orthodoxe religion and a progression of Islam. In 2006, in four areas, the orthodoxe courses of civilization are obligatory in the schools. Elsewhere, they remain optional. The patriarch of Moscow is present at the official ceremonies. Islam is taught in the Republics of the the Caucasus.

  • Swiss: The preamble to the federal Constitution of 1999 starts with an invocation of the divine power: " In the name of God the Almighty! " The cantonal situations are varied, certain cantons recognizing the preeminence of certain Churches (Catholicism, Protestantism, Old Catholics and/or Judaism), others respecting the principle of separation between church and State.

Country with religion of State

Country where a religion is declared like dominant by the Constitution and enjoys a privileged statute, without to constitute a " State religieux" with the direction where the capacity is not exerted there " in the name of Dieu" :

Buddhist states

Kampuchea and Thailand

Christian states

Jewish state

Israel

Founded like the State for the Jews , it became the Jewish State , following an agreement between David Ben Gourion and the orthodoxe minority with an aim of obtaining its support in the war of independence against the Great Britain. Today, the Israeli situation is complex:

  • the civil statue is governed by the religious law of each community of the country (for any citizen, even not Jew),
  • the conversions obtained abroad from Rabbin S liberal were not recognized until February 20th 2002, date where the Supreme court returned a verdict obliging the ministry for the Interior to register as Juif S 24 people converted by rabbis massortis and liberal
  • the marriages on the national territory must be carried out by orthodoxe rabbis , but the marriages massortis (preserving) are allowed if the ceremony takes place abroad. The divorce can be required by the women as by the men, only near the religious authority (or civil for the foreigners resident); unfortunately for the women asking for a religious divorce, according to the orthodoxe version of the Judaism, their husband can refuse the divorce without incurring indefinitely to them religious sanction, however it must then give the totality of its wages to his wife, which encourages it to accept the petition for divorce of his wife.
  • two consistories represent the religious authority: a Ashkenaze and a Séfarade; those which claim neither of the ones nor others, like the Falashas, are thus underprivileged.
  • the State took measures to support the financing of the congregations massorti (preserving on the faith, modern on moral theology and secularity) and liberal (modern on all the points), but in practice the orthodoxe ones continue to be favoured in the attribution of subsidies and buildings of worship.
  • only the Jewish citizens (laic) and the citizens Druzes make the military service.
  • the mention “Jew”, “Druze”, “Arabic” is specified on the indentity card.

Moslem states

Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania

Theocratic countries

Governments in which the clerks or their representatives exert the authority in the name of God.

  • the Vatican (Catholic Pope , Apostolic and Roman) : to see controversy.

  • Islamic Republic of Iran (the Conseil of the Guards of the Révolution is composed members of the Shiite clergy )
  • République of Maldives (Sultanat Islamique)
  • Bhutan (Buddhist Theocracy)

See the dedicated article: List of theocracies.

A particular case: European Union

The European Union gathers States having designs different from secularity. To try to gum these divergences, the Projet of treaty instituting a Constitution for Europe (June 2003) devoted article 51 of its first part to the statute of the Churches and the nondenominational organizations:

  • 51-1: The Union respects and does not prejudge a statute from which, under the terms of the national right, the Churches and associations or religious communities in the Member States profit.
  • 51-2: The Union also respects the statute of the philosophical and nondenominational organizations.
  • 51-3: Recognizing their identity and their specific contribution, the Union maintains an opened, transparent and regular dialog, with these Churches and organizations.

Much in France protested against subparagraph 3, estimating that it granted to the Churches privileges incompatible with a laic constitution. This subparagraph in any event made dual employment with article 46 (- 2): “The institutions of the Union maintain an opened, transparent and regular dialog with representative associations and the civil society. ”

On the other hand, others considered it regrettable that it is not refers, not with the religion , but with the Christian culture like common base of the European people. But, it was about an implicit reference to the bases Judeo-Christians of a part only of our moral, legal and political systems, which implied also, de facto, a standpoint on the entry of Balkans and Turkey, laic country of Moslem tradition. (on this subject, cf J-P. Willaime, Europe and religion, stakes of XXIe century , Beech, 2004.)

The the Council of Europe exhorts as for him its Member States to refuse the cultural Relativisme and recalls the primacy of human right and the separation of the Church and the State, and in particular women on the excessive respect of the " freedom religieuse" , and condemns any habit or political founded on or allotted to the religion which would go in its opposition, quoting the forced marriages, the genital mutilations, the oppositions to the Divorce or the Avortement, the imposition of vestimentary code to the minor ones. (Women Resolution and religion in Europe).

Random links:1397 | Arthropod | Turn of Algarve 2004 | Nosy Mangabe | Minor characters in 24

© 2007-2008 speedlook.com; article text available under the terms of GFDL, from fr.wikipedia.org