A campaign led by the right-wing populists of the Swiss people’s party, is seeking to enshrine a constitutional ban on minarets. The initiative received more than enough votes to warrant a referendum on the issue – 15,000 more than the 100,000 signatures needed. People’s party lawmaker Walter Wobmann defended the move, saying “many recognize in…
French president Nicolas Sarkozy recently defended the notion of “positive secularism” which allows place for religion in the public sphere. While Sarkozy has not introduced any real reform, making the statement in speeches in Rome in December 2007 and in Riyad in January 2008, the suggestion has created fierce debate. In the past Sarkozy has…
Dr. Kastoryano is now director of research at Sciences Politique in Paris, having begun her tenure in 1988. Prior to this affiliation, she taught at Harvard University, and since 1988 has worked as a fellow at Princeton, at the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin and again at Harvard in 2003-2004. Since 2005, she has also acted as an invited professor at the New School for Social Research in New York. Her research interests today fall broadly to the political sociology of Europe, nationalisms and identity.
On Saturday March 8th, Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis defended the right of Muslim women to cover their heads, refuting claims that the headscarf poses a threat to secularism. Human rights and the secular nature of a state are not threatened by the headscarf. Nor are they safeguarded by a ban said Bakoyannis. Bakoyannis blamed…
Mayors across France struggle to respect French laicite and satisfy the freedoms of fellow-countrymen of different confessions, without being accused of pandering for votes. John Rock Blazy, mayor of Gonesse, has proposed the creation of a Committee of Ethics devoted solely to these questions of religion and secularism.
