"State schools will remain secular. For that a law is necessary," Chirac said

PARIS, December 17 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – French President Jacques Chirac said Wednesday, December 17, it was necessary to pass a law banning Hijab in public schools, and dropped a suggestion of making Eid al-Adha a state holiday for Muslims in government schools.

In a televised speech full of calls for maintaining unity on the basis of "long established" secular traditions, Chirac said the "Islamic veil - whatever name we give it - the kippa and a cross that is of plainly excessive dimensions: these have no place in the precincts of state schools.

"State schools will remain secular. For that a law is necessary," he said, asserting hw would ask the parliament to pass one, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).  

Chirac was commenting on a recommendation last week by the Stasi commission to ban all "conspicuous" religious signs in public schools.  

Chirac also called for a law to stop patients refusing treatment from a doctor of the opposite sex, a "secular code" to be issued to all state employees and establishing an Observatory on Secularism to monitor developments.

France has the largest Muslim population in Europe, with around five million people, and several thousand Muslims girls wear Hijab in classes.

Although Chirac took the speech as a chance to convince Muslims that the ban is in their own interests, he was as firm that secularism should be maintained in the country.

"Secularism is one of the great conquests of the republic. It is an element crucial to our social peace and national cohesion. We cannot let it weaken. We must work to reinforce it," he said.

"It is a road that we must continue to tread now," said the French president,  adding that respecting common values "requires limits".

"So the danger is allowing these individual values to overrun the common interests of the country".

He argued that this would increase the racial and cultural cohesion of society and end all forms of discrimination.

"They made our country stronger and prosperous, and maintain France a leading world country."

Compensation

Fearing backlash from the large Muslim community, observers said Chirac was careful to show that Muslims could gain from the move.

He said a firm stance against hijab most be accompanied by an greater determination to involve Muslims in society.

"I share the feeling of incomprehension, of disarray and sometimes even of revolt by those young French people -- immigrants by origin -- whose job applications go in the bin because of the sound of their name," Chirac said.

"All the children of France, whatever their background, whatever their origin, whatever their belief, are daughters and sons of the republic. They must be recognized as such, in law but above all in the facts (of everyday life)."

He added that more actions would be taken for the government to stand firmly - and "react energetically" - against religious indiscrimination.

"We have to break silence of our differences that bring discrimination in our society."

Chirac also promised to be "vigilant" against any violation of giving equal rights to all citizens, regardless of their race, color or religion.

Holidays Dropped

The French president dropped a suggestion by the commission for making the Muslim Eid al-Adha and the Jewish Yom Kippur as state holidays for Muslims and Jewish students respectively in government schools.

"However I do not think any pupil should have to say sorry for being absent on a major religious holiday... as long as the establishment has been informed in advance," he said.

The idea had sent shockwaves through the centre-right government which is currently drafting legislation to make state employees work on the Christian holiday of Pentecost in order to raise money for care for the elderly, the BBC News Online reported.

The French Muslim Council - Muslims' first ever representative body in France – had earlier said it regretted the report's recommendations.

"The spirit and general tone of the report stigmatize one section of the nation, and take no account of the reality of Islam in France," the council had said.

On December 6, Chirac described hijab as "a sort of aggression" during a meeting with students at the Pierre Mendes-France School in the Tunisian capital.