Stasi recommended banning hijab in government schools

By Hadi Yahmid, IOL Correspondent

PARIS, December 17 (IslamOnline.net) – The French Muslim Council lambasted Tuesday, December 16, a government report on secularity and religion, dismissing it as an "affront" to the Muslim community in the western European country.

In an open message to French President Jacques Chirac, a copy of which was obtained by IslamOnline.net, the council said secularism in France took "a step backward" after a government commission had recommended banning ostentatious religious sings in state schools, particularly hijab.

Inked by the council's president Dalil Boubaker, the missive said the commission, headed by former minister Bernard Stasi, turned a blind eye to discrimination against the around five million Muslims in France – the largest minority – and brushed aside the council's opinion on the thorny issue.

It described the Stasi recommendation as a deep source of concern for Muslims in France, given that it extremely insults "in spirit and letter" a big cross-section of the French population and disregards the true essence of Islam in France.

"The commission ignored the conclusions of a report released by the Supreme Council for Integration on the conditions of the immigrants in 2000, let alone that it made no mention of the council's opinion [on the issue]," the message read.

The commission, which was set up by Chirac in June, has compiled its report depending on the testimonies of some 120 people, including hijab-wearing Muslims, heads of French parties, human rights organization representatives, intellectuals and writers.

It also criticized dealing with hijab in France from a security perspective by regarding hijab as some kind of "public disorder".

The message said the report infringes upon the right of Muslims in France to freedom of religion enshrined by secularism in a resolution issued by the French State Council in 1989, which also stressed that there was no problem in wearing hijab.

Step Backward 

The Muslim council affirmed that secularism in France had taken a "step backward" after the Stasi recommendation.

It cited the law of 1905, which separates the state form the church and provides for ensuring the practice of religious rituals.

It said the Stasi report, on the other extreme, stopped short of protecting the right to practice religious rituals in schools and hospitals, for instance, and paid no heed to the social ills of French Muslims.

"Stasi report, in a nutshell, is a failure to the idea of integration in society and will only lead to more discrimination against Islam in France," the message added.

A council official source told IOL that the message followed an emergency meeting at Paris Mosque on Monday, December 15, which poured anger on the Stasi conclusions.

Trade-Off

On the Stasi suggestion of making Eid al-Adha a state holiday for Muslims in government schools, Eltuhami Ibriz, the president of Paris Muslim Council, told IOL it was a kind of "trade-off" and did not address the root cause of Muslims' worries.

For his part, Amar Safar, the president of Lille's Muslim Municipality, told TV 2 that the Eid holiday was not high on the agenda of French Muslims.

He said the whole fuss over the proposed vacation aimed at shifting the attention away from the first and foremost issue of hijab.

Elysee sources leaked that the French president would snub the Stasi recommendation on declaring Eid and Yom Kippur state holidays for Muslims and Jews in government schools.

Chirac had joined the anti-hijab camp in France by describing hijab as "a sort of aggression" during a meeting with students at the Pierre Mendes-France School in the Tunisian capital on December 6.

He is due to make a televised speech to the nation later Wednesday, December 17, on the conclusions reached by the Stasi commission.