The French government's decision, to support the right of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo to publish cartoons offensive to the religious beliefs of Muslims, has implicated France in a war between religious and secular absolutists.

In religious absolutism, the secular sphere has no place, and in secular absolutism, the religious sphere has no place. Religious absolutism takes political form in the confessional state, where the idea of citizenship is tied to a set of religious beliefs underwritten and enforced by the state.