laïcité

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/09/20/world/europe/french-magazine-publishes-cartoons-mocking-muhammad.html?_r=0& Mr. Biard, the editor in chief, described the newspaper as "atheist" and "democratic," but also a defender of France's fervent secularism, known as "laïcité." "We're a newspaper against religions as soon as they enter into the political and public realm," Mr. Biard said. Religious leaders, and Muslim religious leaders in particular, have manipulated their French followers for political reasons, he asserted. "You're not meant to identify yourself through a religion, in any case not in a secular state," Mr. Biard said.