The Power of Symbols and Symbols as Power: Secularism and Religion as Guarantors of Cultural Convergence
![handle is hein.journals/cdozo30 and id is 2647 raw text is: THE POWER OF SYMBOLS AND SYMBOLS AS
POWER: SECULARISM AND RELIGION AS
GUARANTORS OF CULTURAL CONVERGENCE
Susanna Mancini*
INTRODUCTION: THE CONFLICTS OVER RELIGIOUS SYMBOLS
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 creche, 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.
* Professor of Public Comparative Law, The Law School of the University of Bologna, Italy.
Adjunct Professor of International Law, SAIS Johns Hopkins University, Bologna Center.
I Law No. 2004-228 of Mar. 15, 2004, Journal Officiel de la R~publique Franqaise [J.O.]
[Official Gazette of France], Mar. 17, 2004, p. 5190.
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The Power of Symbols and Symbols as Power: Secularism and Religion as Guarantors of Cultural Convergence
The Power of Symbols and Symbols as Power: Secularism and Religion as Guarantors of Cultural Convergence