Laïcité
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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French secularity (French: laïcité, is the absence of religious involvement in government affairs, especially the prohibition of religious influence in the determination of state policies; it is also the absence of government involvement in religious affairs, especially the prohibition of government influence in the determination of religion. Dictionaries ordinarily translate laïcité as secularity or secularism (the latter being the political system), although it is sometimes rendered in English as laicity or laicism by its opponents. While the term was first used with this meaning in 1871 in the dispute over the removal of religious teachers and instruction from elementary schools, the word laïcité dates to 1842.
In its strict and official acceptance, it is the principle of separation of church (or religion) and state. Etymologically, laïcité is a noun formed by adding the suffix -ité (English -ity, Latin -itās) to the Latin adjective lāicus, loanword from the Greek λᾱϊκός (lāïkós "of the people", "layman"), the adjective from λᾱός (lāós "people").
French secularism has a long history but the current regime is based on the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State.
See also
- 1825 Anti-Sacrilege Act
- Centre d'action laïque
- Civil religion
- Dechristianization of France during the French Revolution
- Freemasonry and Catholicism
- Politics of Turkey
- Secularism in Turkey
- Secular humanism
- Secular state
- Secularism
