The Universal Constitutionalism in an Age of Religious Diversity. Western Secularism Tested by “New” Cultural Conflicts (original) (raw)

2011, Stato, Chiese e pluralismo confessionale

1. Introduction-2. Relation-Collaboration between the State and Churches in Constitutional Democracies-3. The laicité à la française Tested by a Deprivatised Religious Process-3.1. The French Rigid Secularism. Freedom (of Religion) through the State-4. Canada's Open Secularism. The Question of Religious-Based Family Law Disputes-4.1 Reasonable Accommodation and "New" Religious Nomoi Groups-5. Collaboration-Relation between the State and Churches in Italy-5.1. The Italian Secularism Tested by the New "Religious Geography"-6. Conclusion. 1-Introduction Under the pressing process of immigration, in recent years many Western constitutional democracies have moved from a number of creeds sharing, more or less, a common Christian background, to today's variety of different religions, ethnicities and cultures. These legal systems have now to deal with an era of unprecedented religious diversity producing paradoxes that stress the issue of secularism. On one hand, the proliferation of different nomoi groups 1 , brought by the mighty flux of migration, increases the cultural and religious pluralism. On the other, it raises widespread demands for recognition of religious organizations and relative precepts in the public space. We are in other words witnessing the deconstruction of traditional Western "religious uniformity" 2. *An abridged version of this article (reported by Prof. Nicola Colaianni, University of Bari "Aldo Moro") was presented at the Seminar on "Secularism and Liberal Constitutionalism", held at the University of LUISS "Guido Carli" (Rome) on 6 th July 2010.