The Power of Symbols and Symbols as Power: Secularism and Religion as Guarantors of Cultural Convergence

This paper focuses on the conflicts that arise in relation to “the place” of religious symbols in the public sphere, and, specifically, in State schools. Such conflicts, I believe, do not only reflect most of the dilemmas that liberal democracies face in the attempt to reconcile constitutionalism and religion through adherence to secularism in the public place—they actually challenge the very legitimacy of the dominant conception of constitutionalism and its nexus to the principle of secularism. Religious symbols in the public schools typically raise two sets of conflicts. The first set of conflicts arises over the extent to which the right to wear religious symbols and clothes can be limited in the name of other rights and principles of equal constitutional value. In principle, this type of conflict may arise both in relation to the denomination of the majority as well to those of religious minorities. The French Law of March 17, 2004, which prohibits “the wearing of symbols or clothing by which students conspicuously manifest a religious appearance” in all State schools,1 is neutrally worded and therefore applicable to all symbols, including Christian ones. In practice, however, controversies have arisen exclusively in relation to the right of pupils belonging to religious minorities to wear their symbols and have almost exclusively concerned Islamic schoolgirls. The second type of conflict arises when a religious symbol, such as the crucifix, or the crèche, is used as a “public language” of identity by State authorities. In this case, unlike in the first type of conflict, the contested symbol represents the dominant religion and not that of minority groups.