December 11, 2014

Baby Jesus, secularism and the struggle of identity

editor:	Murat Suner

Ten years ago France, the mother country of secularism, approved a law banning all obvious religious symbols from schools - including headscarves, Christian crosses and Jewish skullcaps.

Against the background of a multi-religious but strictly secular French republic, supporters and opponents left the debate without clarity whether this will achieve the aim of helping to unite the country or - as some have suggested - divide it more than ever.

Now, on December 10th, France celebrated its Day of Secularism, however, not without the debate flaming up after a French administrative court ruled that the government in Vendée "must remove its traditional Christmas nativity scene from the local council's building" Vice News reports. Because the law implies that "traditional nativity scenes are a more of a religious phenomenon than a cultural one."

The pretended loss of cultural identity is widely used by far-right politicians, such as Marine Le Pen, in France, who fear the watering down of France's traditions.

This isn't only a French issue: A similar phenomenon recently appeared in Germany, where in Dresden thousands of protesters demonstrated under the umbrella of a group called Pegida against the islamization of the occident.

Decades after immigration and ten years after France's secular law it seems that religion has become an even more significant platform of forging identity - whatever that might be.