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1. Laicism is a political ideology developing in Catholic-dominated France, under the name laïcité, beginning in the mid-nineteenth century. The French word laïcité is a neologism, derived from laïque (French, ‘secular,’ or ‘lay’), which is in turn derived from the Greek laós (‘simple people,’ as distinguished from their rulers and priests). It arises as a counter-concept to the polemical expression ‘clericalism,’ which has been used since the Revolution of 1848 as a deprecating designation for the dominance of the Catholic Church in society. The aim for laïcité is the strict leg…