ABSTRACT
The French Revolution birthed the contemporary European notion of secularism. Contrary to widespread belief, the Revolution’s original intention was not so much to separate the Catholic Church from the state, but to affirm individual equality and freedom of conscience. In his speech after the events in Paris, Prime Minister Manuel Valls called for a mobilization of secularism, which he described as the first of values, an instrument of unity and tolerance and the reason why France was the target of fundamentalism. Freedom of conscience and equality are identified as the ends, where secularism defined as the neutrality of the state in the face of various religious beliefs is but the means to achieve them. The political appropriation of neutrality as a valid justification for restricting the right to freedom of conscience and religion began in France during the affaire des foulards islamiques at the end of the twentieth century.
