Word: religion
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Nowhere is the tension between work and faith more pronounced than in France. There, laïcité, or secularism, dictates that religion should be confined to the private sphere. Though the 1978 Islamic Revolution in Iran shattered the long-cherished view that modernization inevitably pushes people away from faith and toward secularism, French Muslim professionals say they often face the assumption from their colleagues that career success will have this effect. "If you're doing well, they assume you're one of them, and so you're secular," says Parisian Muslim Zoubeir Ben Terdeyet, a consultant with an international...
...businessman and the author of a study on workplace discrimination. Asked if any of his 4,000 employees wear the hijab, he says he remembers one who did, but adds that she wouldn't have had contact with clients: "I'm against wearing the hijab at work. Shows of religion just result in antagonism between the majority culture and minorities." Recruiters often ask Boujema Hadri, owner of the Paris-based employment agency Very Important Training, if a candidate with an Arab name wears the veil. "They know it doesn't affect women's job performance," he says, "but they...
...campaign's calculation about winning a large share of the state's evangelicals, however, may not be right. "What most people on the outside don't realize," says John Green, a fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life who has studied evangelical voting patterns in Florida and elsewhere, "is that the evangelical electorate in Florida is actually pretty evenly divided between more conservative elements and more moderate camps." Green notes that Huckabee actually draws most of his support from that moderate wing. "It's likely that the group of people that might move away from Huckabee because...
...Other conflicts are less sexy - but remain numerous. Critics argue such conflicting Sarkozy policies and waffling on positions suggest he's less the intrepid breaker of taboos, and more the standard politician than he likes to suggest. Indeed, though troubled by Sarkozy's venture into religion, Lévy suspects it was "calculated as a nod to Catholic (voters), before quickly making another, without doubt, towards the Jews, Free Masons, and Muslims". But unlike other contradictions, Lévy believes Sarkozy's professions of faith are particularly lamentable, since they "make no sense at all coming from the mouth...
...Suspicions that some Sarkozy positions were manifesting split personalities increased on Thursday night, when the president reversed a spree of uncharacteristic - and highly controversial - praises of religion by declaring his devotion to the French state's tradition of secularity. During a recent trip to Saudi Arabia - a country whose official Wahhabism has been criticized from abroad as extreme and intolerant - Sarkozy claimed to know of no country whose "heritage, culture, and civilization wasn't rooted in religion". That followed his comments in the Vatican in late December, where the President praised faith and extolled "France's Christian roots". But given...