A “guide to secularism” to help public officials manage daily attacks

While attacks on secularism regularly make the headlines, the government is presenting a guide on Monday to the secularism representatives of ministries, with concrete cases to help public service agents on a daily basis.

The Minister of Civil Service, Stanislas Guérini, and the Minister of Citizenship, Sabrina Agresti-Roubache, brought together, Monday, December 18 in the morning, around twenty secularism representatives present in each ministry to present them with a guide, which should help the public officials to manage attacks on secularism on a daily basis. These referents will then be responsible for ensuring the dissemination of this guide.

According to an executive advisor, public officials are sometimes helpless: “We don’t always know how to react, so sometimes we do nothing.” This booklet gives concrete cases, for example: “Can a public official wear a religious symbol? – No, and if the agent persists there may be disciplinary sanctions”. Or : “Can an agent refuse to shake the hand of a colleague for religious reasons?” It’s still no. Other case : “Can an authorization of absence be issued for a religious holiday?” There, the answer is yes, if the request was made upstream and does not pose a problem to the operation of the service.

Respect and enforce secularism

This guide also contains recommendations for users because civil servants must respect secularism but also enforce it in public services. “Can a user wear a religious symbol in a public service?” Yes, no problem, unless it’s a burqa, which is banned in France. “Can a user demand to be received by a person of the same sex?”, a scenario that can occur in the hospital, for example. The answer is no, but to refuse, “we will have to do educational work”explains the guide.

There are also some practical cases concerning school, because it is at the level of National Education that there are the most questions relating to secularism. Example : “Can parents accompanying school outings wear a religious symbol?” Yes, veiled mothers have the right, even if the right and the extreme right regularly propose to change the law. However, this guide does not answer everything: last week a teacher from Yvelines was accused of Islamophobia for having shown in class a Renaissance painting with naked nymphs. This case is not provided for in the general guide and it is from the Ministry of Education that there are more recommendations. Today’s meeting will also allow all ministries to present the number of cases reported, the type of questions asked, in order to complete the guide if necessary. The government wants all public officials to be trained in the principle of secularism by 2025.