eurel     Données sociologiques et juridiques sur la religion en Europe et au-delà

2018

Religious issues have not been the subject of much debate in France since the beginning of 2018.

 However, some elements have marked the news in a more or less sustainable way.
The Minister of National Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, set up a Conseil des sages de la laïcité (Council of Wise Men of Secularism) at the beginning of 2018. This council’s task is to clarify the position of the school institution with regard to secularism. This council is composed of experts from different specialities and with different convictions.

 The attack on three prison guards by a jihadist detainee at the Vendin-le-Veil prison (Pas-de-Calais) triggered the mobilization of many prison guards, who denounce the insecurity they face in prison establishments. The issue of religious radicalisation of prisoners, but also that of persons returning from an engagement in Iraq and Syria, is now a major problem for the prison institution, which has already been strongly criticised by the International Prison Observatory for problems of overcrowding and unhealthy conditions in institutions. In February, the government announced a plan to combat radicalisation (see Le Figaro, L’express, Le Muslim post, Libération).

 The indictment in February 2018 of Tariq Ramadan, a sometimes controversial but well-known Muslim theologian of major importance, for "rape" and "rape of vulnerable persons" has also caused much publicity (see for example Le Monde, Le Parisien, Libération).

 As part of the hearings on the revision of bioethics laws, the Comité national consultatif d’éthique (CCNE, National Consultative Ethics Committee) received representatives of the various religious groups present in France. The CCNE submitted its Summary Report on Bioethics to Parliament on June 4, 2018.

 The televised intervention of a leader of the UNEF (a students’ union) at the University of Paris-Sorbonne caused a brief controversy, as the young woman, Myriam Pougetoux, appeared wearing a head scarf. It can be difficult to understand that the principle of secularism has led to a ban on the wearing of religious symbols in public schools in France, but that this ban does not apply to university students, who are users of public services (see Le Monde).

D 24 août 2018    AAnne-Laure Zwilling

CNRS Unistra Dres Gsrl

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