Ibriz dismissed Chirac's comments as derogatory

By Hadi Yahmid, IOL Correspondent

PARIS, December 7 (IslamOnline.net) – French President Jacques Chirac has antagonized French Muslims, the largest minority in the country, after joining the anti-hijab camp and describing it as "a sort of aggression".

The deputy head of the French Muslim Council, Althuhami Ibriz, denounced Chirac's statements as "unacceptable".

He branded the remarks a breach of a decision issued by the Council of State in 1998, which maintained that hijab, per se, did not represent a problem unless it was of "an ostentatious character".

Speaking to IslamOnline.net, Ibriz criticized the "derogatory" comments, which infringed upon the Muslims' right to freedom of religion.

Chirac made the statements during a meeting with students at the Pierre Mendes-France School in the Tunisian capital Saturday, December 6, on the sidelines of a two-day summit of five southern-European states and their North African neighbors.

"Wearing a veil, whether we want it or not, is a sort of aggression that is difficult for us to accept," he said.

The Muslim Council official also accused Chirac of having "summed up human rights as having only to do with food, accommodation and health care."

The French leader had hailed Tunisia's human rights record, saying the North African country made impressive strides in education, health care, accommodations and making food available for everyone.

The French human rights watchdog and the international federation for human rights had issued Thursday, December 4, a joint statement, lambasting Chirac's comments on human rights in Tunisia.

The statement said that the president had turned a blind eye to injustices done to right activists in Tunisia and the detention of hundreds of political activists.

France's oppositions parties, notably the Greens, the Communists and the Socialists, also dismissed as "a scandal" Chirac's statements on Tunisia's rights record.

They charged that such comments would empower totalitarian regimes in the third world.

Muslims' Testimonies

Stasi panel listening to the testimonies of Muslim women

In a related development, France's secularity commission, which was set up by Chirac in July to rule whether new legislation was needed to ban religious signs in public institutions, listened Friday, December 5, to testimonies of two hijab-wearing French women on the controversial issue.

It also heard from a third Muslim woman, who does not wear hijab, who pressed for laws banning hijab in schools and penalizing racial discrimination against Muslims.

The commission, which is headed by former French minister Bernard Stasi, is expected to submit its report to Chirac by the end of December after questioning ministers and representatives of French non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and various syndicates.

Saida Kada, one of the two hijab-wearing women,  co-authored a book strongly defending hijab and proving that it did not contradict with secularism.

Mrs. Kada reiterated her position on hijab before Stasi's commission, warning that the anti-hijab draft law, if passed, would be an insult to Muslims in France.

She said that the mooted bill would fan extremism and do nothing to the problems of the Muslim minority in France, such as social integration and discrimination.

French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin secured  on November 28 a majority approval of his ruling party to pass the controversial bill.

Mrs. Kada said hijab has nothing to do with politics, but is one of the rules of the Islamic faith.

She underlined that hijab was being used as a pretext to paper over some social ills inside the French society.

Fathia el-Gibali, a French Muslim woman rights activist, said that enacting such a law would create a generation of introverts, who would crawl into their shells.

She asserted that hijab can in no way be an obstacle to public life, being herself a hijab-wearing NGO activist.

On the other extreme, the commission listened to Nadia el-Emari, a university professor who does not wear hijab.

She called for enacting two laws: one banning hijab in schools and the other penalizing racial discrimination against Muslims in France.

The London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC)  has launched Wednesday, December 3, a worldwide campaign, urging Muslims to write to European officials, foreign ministers and French ambassadors to take a strong action to stop the mooted discriminatory bill.