FRANCE: Muslim unwillingness to be assimilated

Christopher Jones has made us acutely aware of the problem of Muslims in France. Like the US, France thought of itself as a melting pot, but the Muslims there seem determined to remain a foreign element in the body politic. For women, the headscarf has become the symbol of this determination. Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has targeted Muslim school students, saying the government could give teachers the power to expel students who "flaunt their religion". The wearing of the traditional Muslim headscarf, in particular, stirs heated debate in France, a secular state with a Roman Catholic majority. A survey last week suggested that over a third of people think Muslim women should be barred from wearing headscarves, not only in state institutions but in any public place. In comments likely to fuel the debate, Raffarin said teachers would take a hard line with pupils who show religious allegiance in school in defiance of France's secular tradition. The government says that Muslim practices in schools, combined with opposition to Israeli repression against Palestinians, may fuel anti-Semitism. France has the largest Jewish population in Europe. Many French commentators were alarmed when the Union of Islamic Organizations in France (UOIF), a traditionalist group styled on the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt, won a third of votes for the national Muslim council last month. The council elected as its president the moderate Dalil Boubakeur, head of the Paris Mosque, who becomes the official spokesman for France's five million Muslims. (Reuters, 7/5/03)

Ronald Hilton - 5/11/03