Educating “Secular” Europe: Rising religious pluralism and the reshaping of (non)religious education

The presence, content, and policies of religious education vary significantly across Western Europe.  Much of this variation stems from particular historical relationships between states and dominant religion(s) and from the forms of secularism endorsed by various states.  When looked at through a modern lens, however, the shape of religious and secular education appears to increasingly reflect state relationships with incoming or new religious groups rather than with established religious groups.  In the case of France, such changes in light of the growing presence of Muslims are particularly evident.  Private French Muslim education is slowly gaining a foothold, while private French Catholic schools are enrolling rising numbers of Muslim students, and officials within the French public school system are reacting with increasingly laïque fervor.  In this paper, I present the educational case of France in a comparative perspective with other European countries to demonstrate how the rise of minority religious groups is changing the face of both public and private education in regards to the allowance, content, and organization of religious instruction.  In addition, I discuss the contradictions and consequences that exist and are emerging within the “secular” education systems in France and Western Europe as these systems attempt to restructure in light of increasing religious pluralism.