Abstract The vast majority of studies on Buṭrus al-Bustānī (1819–83), a leading intellectual the Arab Nahḍa, have focused his “transitions” from Maronite church to Protestantism and then various secular pursuits, such as fostering Syrian national identity, separation religion politics, supporting political culture based equal rights religious ecumenism. present article contends that extant lite...

This paper focuses on the conflicts that arise in relation to “the place” of religious symbols in the public sphere, and, specifically, in State schools. Such conflicts, I believe, do not only reflect most of the dilemmas that liberal democracies face in the attempt to reconcile constitutionalism and religion through adherence to secularism in the public place—they actually challenge the very l...