Religion, despite its significance in social life, has always been a complex and controversial issue, especially in its relation to politics (state), human rights and liberal democracy. From a theoretical perspective, the paper contributes to clarifying the distinction between the public and private spheres, as well as religion the public sphere/space. Besides, the paper analyzes disputes about the free expression of religious symbols in public space through the case of the French Republic. (Received 20 August 2021
published 15 November 2021)