Friday, December 30, 2016

Secularism: Everyone Wants to Get Rid of It

There is only one more day left in 2016 to make a tax-deductible contribution to help support Gatestone's crucial work. Please help us sustain and grow Gatestone's community of experts and authors, ensuring that their vital work continues to make a significant impact -- donate today.

Secularism: Everyone Wants to Get Rid of It

by Yves Mamou • December 30, 2016 at 5:30 am

Now, after more than a century of separation of powers between church and state, an intolerant and extremist Islam is disrupting the rules of the game, invading public spaces, schools, universities and companies with the veil, halal food and open violence.
"By making the public space empty of everything that brings us together... Islamists are eager to fill it, especially in disillusioned, brainless and uprooted young heads". — François Fillon, a former Prime Minister of France, who is running for president in the 2017 election.
"Secularism is just becoming a religion opposed to all other religions", said Tariq Ramadan, a prominent figure of the Muslim Brotherhood in Switzerland and France. He congratulated mayors on Christmas nativity scenes probably because he sees it as an opening for Islamic opportunities in the public sphere. "We need a Republic authorizing the visibility of diversity and not a Republic of neutrality" he said.

In France, François Fillon (right), a former Prime Minister who is running for president in the 2017 election, welcomed a recent court decision to allow Christmas nativity scenes in city halls.

Can a French municipality erect a statue of the Virgin Mary in a public park? The answer is No. France's Administrative Court has given the mayor of Publier, in eastern France (population 6500), three months to comply with the ban on religious symbols in public spaces and to remove the statue. If the municipality fails to do so, it will be fined €100 ($105) a day. Mayor Gaston Lacroix said he will try to relocate the marble statue on private land.

France's 1905 Law on the Separation of the Churches and the State (Article 2) states that "The Republic does not recognize, pay or subsidize any religious sect"; article 28 prohibits any religious symbol on public monuments.