In all human societies, religion is an unavoidable issue. When France encouraged massive immigration from sub-Saharan and North Africa, in order to provide low-cost labour to meet its industrial needs, it refused to see the cultural problem it was in the process of creating.
France’s 1905 law on the separation of church and state put an end to a long history of conflict, and gave the country a century of religious peace for the first time.
Jacques Robert has provided a precise examination of the conditions under which Islam can comply with the Republican law of secularism. He argues that religions must abandon all characteristics of sects, and that they must help bring about a religious democracy.
Written by one of France’s top legal experts, this book should serve as a warning against the excessive use of legislation, which can ultimately destroy the Law.

Jacques Robert is a professor emeritus and the honorary President of the University of Paris-Assas. He is a former member of the Constitutional Council and the author of La Monarchie marocaine (1963), La liberté religieuse et le régime des cultes (1977), L’esprit de défense (1987), Droits de l’homme et libertés fondamentales (1999) and Enjeux du siècle: Nos libertés (2002).