Europa e Islam: riletture della laicità

[Autom. eng. transl.] If the clash between Islam and the West has found in war and terrorist events in international politics its most impressive and media-pervasive representation, it is above all in the internal affairs of European politics and civil society that attempts at mutual composition, understanding and revision have sought painstakingly a space. In a certain sense, Europe is at the same time a privileged and obligatory laboratory for possible forms of coexistence between Islam and the West that do not limit themselves to separating diversity or affirming a relationship of forces, but aiming at mutual learning. In this scenario, the question on secularism becomes a fundamental question on what it means to be European citizens even for those who until yesterday were not Europeans. A decisive opportunity to measure the capacity of the political forms that Europe has given itself (and still needs to be given) to interpret the deep beliefs and motivations that animate public life and the political participation of individuals and communities. In this essay we consider the reformulations of the concept of secularism offered by Cécile Laborde, Tariq Ramadan and Andrew March, offering a critical rereading.