I don't know what anticlerical laws of the Second Republic you are referring to. Unless you think that enforcing separation of church and state for the first time is akin to Jim Crow or Apartheid. To think of the Spanish Catholic Church as oppressed is too ludicrous a concept to consider, and if the Poles like Franco they can have another 40 years of dictatorship for all I care.
As for the opinion of Polish Catholics, one of the appaling things about post-communist Poland seen from Spain is how strong the grip of the Catholic church is on the country's politics. Spain's anti-clericalism was a popular movement stemming from centruries of stultifying and oppressive collusion of priests, landowners, and the apparatus of the State. Spain has suffered immensely from the Catholic zealotry of its kings (starting with the Catholic Monarchs Isabel and Fernando, and Spain's leading role in the Counterreformation under their Grandson Emperor Charles V and his son Philip). guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper
As for the opinion of Polish Catholics, one of the appaling things about post-communist Poland seen from Spain is how strong the grip of the Catholic church is on the country's politics.
I'm not too fond of it myself. However, it is the result of factors very similar to those that caused Spain's anti-clericalism. During the Partition period the Prussians and Russians oppressed the Church partly out of religious reasons, partly out of a desire to supress Polish national identity, of which the Church was a symbol. During the communist period the Party also persecuted the Church and Catholics. The result was the reverse of what they had hoped for. During the Partitions peasants who had a hazy national identity at bes (it was associated with the gentry and the urban population) suddenly felt a lot more Polish and anti-German and anti-Russian when their parish priests were put in jail because of their Polishness. During the latter stages of the Communist period even athiests would go to services as a way of demonstrating their rejection of the dictatorship. That identification with the Church was strengthened by the policy of the liberal wing of the Polish episcopate, led by Cardinal Karol Wojtyla (aka John Paul II) to offer help to the secular left wing opposition.
As to the comparison of anticlericalism with racism, I do consider it absurd, that's why I'm disagreeing with your take on the attack on Islam issue and pointing out that you're putting yourself in some surprising political company. Note that the official Catholic position tends to be pretty consistent on this, expressing solidarity with Muslims with respect to the caricatures, as they did earlier during the Salman Rushdie affair.
I do agree with you that attacks on Islam can and do serve as a cover for racism, adding complexity to this issue. The same objections can be and frequently are made to criticism of Israel and Zionism. Life isn't simple, nor is freedom of speech. But the protesters have simplifed the question for us by framing their protests in terms of blasphemy rather than racism.
