Date: 2015
Type: Article
Completing the religious transition? : Muslims and Catholics navigate secularism in democratic Spain
New diversities, 2015, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 95-110
GUIA, Aitana, Completing the religious transition? : Muslims and Catholics navigate secularism in democratic Spain, New diversities, 2015, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 95-110
- https://hdl.handle.net/1814/38839
Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository
In Europe, Muslims are often seen as the enemies of secularism and laïcité, the strict separation of church and state pioneered in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century France. Yet the Spanish experience shows that European Muslims should not prima facie be considered opponents of secularism. Indeed, a majority of devout Spanish Muslims have demanded, rather than opposed, state neutrality on religious matters—this in direct opposition to a concerted effort by the Catholic Church and its supporters to maintain a privileged position vis-à-vis other confessions. In the protracted debates over the role of religion in the public sphere in Spain, devout Muslims have shown a preference for the secular Socialist Party over the militant Catholicism of Spanish conservatives. The leaders of the Protestant, Jewish, and Islamic federations demanded in 2011 that Spain complete its "religious transition" so as to ensure the equal treatment of all religious confessions by the state. Muslims in Spain, while they have echoed Catholic demands for the preservation of religion in the public sphere, have opposed Catholicism's privileged status in the country. By demanding consistency of treatment and state neutrality on religious matters, Muslims have assisted, rather than hindered, the construction of secularism in Spain.
Additional information:
Special issue on Engaging with the Other : Religion, Identity, and Politics in the Mediterranean
Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/38839
ISSN: 2199-8108; 2199-8116
External link: http://newdiversities.mmg.mpg.de/?page_id=971