Chirac set to ban Moslem headscarves in schools
Chirac set to ban Muslim headscarves in schools
BY AP IN PARIS
A French presidential advisory group has recommended banning Islamic headscarves and conspicuous Christian crucifixes in schools.
The 20-member panel, commissioned by President Jacques Chirac, agreed unanimously that France should impose a law banning "obvious" religious and political symbols from public schools and other public buildings.
Such a law would forbid students from wearing headscarves, yarmulkes or large-sized Christian crosses. Small pendants like the Star of David would be permitted.
The conclusions of the panel after six months of study and 120 hearings were expected to play a role in M Chirac's own decision on the hotly debated issue.
"Secularism is the separation of church and state, but it is also the respect of differences," Bernard Stasi, the head of the panel, told a news conference.
He added that the intention of the proposed law was for people of all religions to be able to "live together in public places."
He said: “Muslims must understand that secularism is a chance for Islam.”
France's largest secondary school teachers' union criticised the report for not going far enough in calling for secularism to prevail in public schools.
“In France, in terms of secularism, there is a lot to do. Veils are just one problem, but not the only problem,” said Daniel Robin, national secretary of the SNES union.
He said that several of France's departments still require religion to be taught in public schools and have clergymen on their payrolls.
Jewish and Christian religious leaders have said in the past that they are opposed to ban on headscarves in schools, expressing instead concern about better integrating the Muslim community.
The commission also recommended what would be a first for France - adding Jewish and Muslim holidays to the school calendar.
Several girls have been expelled from public schools this year for wearing Islamic headscarves, fuelling debate over the notion of secularism, a constitutionally guaranteed principle that is a core value of modern-day France.
Each year there are about 150 complaints involving head scarves, according to a French Education Ministry mediator.
Proponents of a ban say that students who wear Muslim headscarves to school, just like civil servants who cover their heads on the job, are challenging the nation's secular underpinnings.
There are also fears that head scarves signal inroads by Muslim fundamentalists in France's estimated 5 million-strong Muslim community - the largest in Western Europe.
A 1999 ruling by the Council of State, France's highest administrative body, said that scarves should be banned only when they were of an “ostentatious character”, but left it up to schools to make that judgment on a case-by-case basis. The same rule applies to skullcaps and crucifixes.
The panel concluded that the existing language left too much room for interpretation.
Use of the world "obvious" in a law would clarify that religious symbols cannot be visibly worn at school, according to Le Figaro newspaper.
M Chirac, who has made clear his opposition to blatant religious symbols in the classroom, said that he would address the nation next week with his own conclusions.
On a state visit last week to Tunisia, M Chirac told a group of high school students that wearing a veil in France was seen as “a sort of aggression.”
Photo: Alma Levy, 16, left, and her sister Lila, 18, who were expelled from their high school near Paris for wearing headscarves
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by ladygoeth33
England
Bookmarks