Guy La Roche from A fistful of Euros has a great post on Olivier Roy’s new book on Islam in the West, Secularism confronts Islam published by the Columbia University Press. La Roche’s post provides an excellent summary of Roy’s main points about the French laïcité and its confrontation with Islam. It is a great read. Sugary excerpt:
In short, even when Secularism confronts Islam focuses on the confrontation between Islam and secularist values, which, as Olivier Roy demonstrates, are not necessarily exclusively Western, it is most of all a work that, by its sheer depth, inspires readers to think about many other concepts. It inspires readers to even rethink some of those concepts in order to gain a better understanding of all the dynamics at play. As we all know, the first step in solving a problem is understanding that problem. Or, to pick up my silly monster metaphor again, if you are afraid of something, the best thing to do is to confront the scary monster by trying to understand it. More often than not you will find it to be much less threatening than you initially thought it would be. The monster may even confront you with yourself… Or, in this case, with the dynamics of our own societies.
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