PARIS, September 22 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin underlined Sunday, September 21, that there would be no room for religious symbols such as Islamic veils in French educational institutions.

“Schools can not be place to express religious commitment or launch political or religious propaganda,” Raffarin said in an interview with the private M6 channel Sunday.

Raffarin was keen to declare that he supports “the practice of religion by individuals freely,” yet, he opposes what he termed "ostentatious expression of religious affiliation".

If a national commission studying the ground rules concerning open expressions of religious affiliation in schools was unable to reach an agreement, the government would draft a new law to regulate the issue, he added.

"Either we get an agreement by all parties to respect this rule or, if there is no agreement, we will need a law," he said.

He called upon the French people to respect secular rules, threatening to pass a law that would commit the French people to respect such rules.

The issue of wearing veils in French schools dates back to September 18, 1989, when three Moroccan girls were denied admission to Caprielle Hafaz institute in Paris by the school’s director, due to wearing Islamic veils.

At that time, an unprecedented media campaign was launched and a debate aroused between those who think that veils in schools are an express defiance of the state’s secularism and others who believe that the incident would lead to deprivation of some French girls from their right to learn.

While France is mainly Catholic, some five million of its 58 million inhabitants are Muslims, many of them descendants of immigrants from former colonies in North Africa.

The French leftists, then, succeeded to allow veiled girls be admitted at French schools, while the rightists defended the secularism of schools. The number of "veil problems" amounted to 400, according to a statistics made by the French Le Nouvelle Observateur on May 21, 2003.

French Muslims themselves are divided over how to deal with the issue. The decision on whether to wear a headscarf is often seen an individual choice, while the debate itself is seen by many as showing Islam in a negative prospective.

French President Jacques Chirac has appointed Tuesday, July 1, 2003, the Presidential media attaché Bernar Stasse as head of a commission that is assigned with applying secular principles in France and preparing recommendations on the possibility of passing a law that bans veils in French schools.

French observers say that the commission set up to consider the matter is split between those seeking an outright ban and those who prefer dialogue with the Muslim community.

While the Minister of Social Affairs calls for passing a law that bans religious symbols, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy calls for dialogue.

The second difficulty is represented in the opposition faced by such a law in some French circles, particularly the leftists, as the French Liberation newspaper published a petition in March 2003 calling for the respect of the right of wearing veils in the name of secularism.