Paris, France - Often, it seems, religious hotheads of one persuasion or another have come to dominate the headlines - and affect official policy-making - in many countries around the world. In those that claim or aspire to maintain a separation between the affairs of church and of state, is that distinct border really always clear?
Now, in France, where the government has already clamped down on "ostentatious" displays of religious symbols in state-run schools - the wearing of, for example, Islamic head scarves or big, Christian-cross jewelry - the High Council on Integration is recommending to Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin that rules protecting the nation's secular society be even more strictly enforced. The government-advisory body is recommending that France recognize a proposed charter that would clearly indicate how church and state should be kept separate in such public institutions - in addition to schools - as hospitals, prisons, the armed forces and all government offices.
The proposed charter invokes the abiding, secular outlook and values that have shaped modern France; they have been expressed in such documents as the Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789), the 1905 law that affirmed the separation of church and state, and the country's post-World War II constitution, which established the current Fifth Republic. The proposed new charter on secular life attempts "to define the rights and obligations of public servants as well as those of users" of such government-provided services. (Le Monde)
In 2004, French Muslim women protested the government's attitude about the traditional, religious head scarf being worn in public schools
Thus, even while reminding government-agency employees they "freedom of conscience is guaranteed" to them, while they're on the job, the "constitutional principle of secularism requires [of all citizens] the obligation of [maintaining] strict neutrality" and "equal treatment of all individuals" and the "respect of the freedom of conscience" of others. In other words, no religious proselytizing on the job, even in subtle ways. The proposed charter adds that, when a public servant "manifests" (expresses) his or her "religious convictions during the carrying-out of his or her functions," in effect that employee's behavior "constitutes a dereliction of his or her obligations."
Conversely, the text of the proposed charter also reminds users - average citizens - of government agencies' services that they "must abstain from all forms of proselytizing" if or when they avail themselves of such services. Translation: Don't show up at the post office or a public hospital spouting religious polemics or demanding special treatment on religious grounds. Moreover, the proposed charter advises members of the general public to be cooperative when public servants, in carrying out their duties, may need to verify a person's identity. The implication: Men or women whose faces or heads are covered by traditional religious garments will have to uncover their faces so that government employees may see them.
In an editorial, Le Monde notes that it isn't exactly "useless" to "reaffirm the basic principles of the republican agreement" that all French citizens are supposed to share in, and which establishes their secular way of life. But "to be obliged to codify some of the rules of communal life in society that should come naturally in a document that comes from the state [itself] - even if it is not a law - reveals the limits of integration policies in a country that [has become] more and more multicultural." The fact that the High Council on Integration's proposed charter has emerged at all, Le Monde concludes, suggests "a failure of 'living together,' a sort of civic fracture that a charter, however useful, will not be enough to diminish."