@article{772359,
      recid = {772359},
      author = {Mattei, Paola, and Aguilar, Andrew S.,},
      title = {Secular Institutions, Islam and Education Policy : France  and the U.S. in Comparative Perspective /},
      pages = {1 online resource (xiii, 236 pages) },
      abstract = {In January 2015, three attackers walked into the office of  the satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, in Paris, opened  fire and killed twelve people, including a Muslim  policeman, in the deadliest terrorist attack on France for  50 years. We live in a time of suspicion and fear, not  least because religion has returned to the centre stage of  collective memories in Europe and in the United States.  Amidst claims of threats to national identities in an era  of increasing diversity, should we be worried about the  upsurge in religious animosity in the United States, as  well as Europe? Paola Mattei and Andrew Aguilar show that  French society is divided along conflicts about religious  identity, increasingly visible in public schools.  Republicanism, based on the solidarity and secularism, is  viewed by many as the cause of discrimination and  unfairness against minority groups. Policies invoking  laïcité are frequently criticised as a disguised form of  Islamophobia. Secular Institutions, Islam, and Education  Policy suggests, on the contrary, that secularism in France  is a flexible concept, translated into contradictory policy  programmes, and subject to varying political  interpretations. This book presents original data showing  how schools have become, once again, a central theatre of  political action and public engagement regarding laicité,  an ideal grounded in the republican origins of the public  education system in France.},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/772359},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137316080},
}