It is mainly targeting Muslims, and would not halt the sectarian trends in society, Mamer

By Hadi Yahmid, IOL Correspondent

PARIS, February 5 (IslamOnline.net) – Scores of French secular activists thronged to the outside of National Assembly on Wednesday, February 4, in protest at the lower house's intention to ban hijab and other religious insignia in the rigidly-secular country.

The demonstrators shouted slogans against the ban, saying the move would be discriminatory as it violates the right of thousands of Muslim students to education.

The ban, expected to come into effect in the coming academic year in September 2004, would increase sectarianism and extremism here, said Halima Abumedinne, a member of the European Parliament.

As a secular French citizen, Abumedinne said that legislation on the ban is biased as it is favors discrimination in treatment.

It is mainly targeting Muslims, and would not halt the sectarian trends in society, Green Party parliamentary chief Noel Mamer told the jeering protestors.

Representatives of France's main secular organizations as well as hijab-clad women showed up for the protest. Muslim youth and feminist groups were also there.

A hundred French secular personalities had issued a similar petition in May 2003 to assure the right of Muslim women and girls to wear hijab, standing on the fact that secularism opposes segregation.

Debate on the ban law was opened in the National Assembly on Tuesday, February 3, by Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, a sign of just how important the government considers the legislation.

Despite divisions  provoked in the lower house and angry backlash from the Muslim minority, the debate sees the agreement of members to stick by enacting the so-called "secularity" law.

The legislation, approved by the cabinet a week ago, states that in schools "the wearing of signs or clothes which conspicuously display a pupil's religious affiliation is prohibited".

It also applies to Jewish skull-caps, large Christian crosses and the Sikh turban.

Three days have been scheduled for the debate and a vote is set for next week. It will be followed by a vote on February 10. The bill will pass then to the upper house, the Senate.

As supporters of President Jacques Chirac in the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party dominate both chambers of parliament, the measure is expected to be passed without difficulty and be on the statute book by the start of the next school year in September.

'Whiff Of Oxygen'

However, opposition is still there, as some such as former prime minister Edouard Balladur have said they will abstain.

while Francois Bayrou - who heads the UMP's coalition partner the Union for French Democracy (UDF) said he would oppose the law because "the disadvantages outweigh the advantages".

Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin was widely quoted in the French press as warning the government that the law would damage French relations with predominantly Muslim nations in the Middle East and Asia.

Claude Goasguen, deputy leader for Chirac's UMP party in parliament, said he was considering abstaining from the vote on the ban.

Centrist Francois Bayrou denounced the planned ban as “a whiff of oxygen for fundamentalists” who would exploit it to whip up protests.

Socialist parliamentary leader Jean-Marc Ayrault said the government's position “is not clear at all”.

The proposed law has been criticized as clumsy and unclear while there are also fears that it could prove divisive - forcing Muslim girls into separate schools.

Although the legislation would be applied in state schools only, the five million Muslims – the largest Islamic community in European countries, fear the government would be emboldened to extend the ban.

Muslim scholars highlight that hijab is a religious obligation not a symbol to be easily abandoned. They also said that the covering is not worn to portray religious affiliations.

The ban has also angered France's 5000 Sikhs, who have turned to India and international Sikh leaders to help them keep the right to wear their trademark turbans in state schools.

Opposition Abroad

In the meantime, France received more appeals to scrap plans to ban the wearing of hijab and other conspicuous religious insignia in schools.

London mayor Ken Livingstone joined the camp, writing to Raffarin urging him to remove the ban.

"I would... like to appeal to you to reconsider restricting fundamental religious freedoms in France through the proposed legislation," the left-wing mayor said in his letter, according to a statement from his office carried by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"I believe that a move to ban the hijab  and other religious symbols in state schools will inflame current tensions between communities and encourage attacks on minority communities, not only in France but also more widely in Europe," Livingstone explained Wednesday.

"Any form of discrimination against their (Muslim's) cultural and religious freedom has, in my view, the effect of stigmatizing them," he went on.

In Britain it is permitted to wear hijabs, Sikh turbans and Jewish skullcaps at school and in the civil service and the planned French ban has provoked outrage.

The British government has stressed that the French ban would not be followed in the country, much to the relief of the Muslim community there.