Sherman said “he intends to submit a draft resolution to the Congress to denounce the French bill”

CAIRO, February 12 (IslamOnline.net) – A U.S. Congressman said he would draft resolution condemning the French imminent law banning hijab is state-run schools, as the Congress International Relations Committee opened fire on Paris’ religious freedom record.

The Committee member Brat Sherman, a Democrat from California, said that “he intends to submit a draft resolution to the Congress to denounce the French bill that bans religious” insignia, Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) said on Thursday, February 12.

Sherman made his statement during a hearing Tuesday, February 10, by the sub-committee of international terrorism issues, non-proliferation of weapons and human rights, affiliated to the U.S. Congress International Relations Committee.

A number of the committee members, including Christopher Smith, a Republican from New Jersey, Dana Robaker, a Republican from California, Betty Malcolm, a Democrat from Minnesota and Joseph Bates, a Republican from Pennsylvania, have also expressed their resentment of the French decision.

France's lower house of parliament, dominated by President Jacques Chirac’s UMP party, adopted the bill Tuesday, February 10, despite fierce opposition from the country’s sizable minorities and international rights groups.

The bill shall be referred at later stage to the senate to be revised and partially amended for appliance as of next academic year in September.

Sherman has urged the U.S. ambassador for religious freedoms John Hanford to practice pressures on the U.S. State Department and the Bush Administration to take a firm stand towards the French bill.

Hanford had earlier grouped France with a list of countries accused of abusing religious freedom.

“All persons should be able to practise their religion and their beliefs peacefully without government interference," he has said.

Protest Letter

Meanwhile, 50 U.S. senators have signed a letter addressed to the French ambassador to the U.S. Jean-David Levitte, expressing their concern over the said French bill.

The letter was submitted by two senators: Michael Honda, a Democrat from California, and Vernon Ehler, a Republican from Michigan.

Senator Rick Santorum, a Republican from Pennsylvania, has also sent a letter to the President Chirac on the same issue.

CAIR, the largest U.S. Muslim advocacy group, urged its supporters in February 2004 to contact their representatives in the Congress and demand them to sign the letter.

The group also made direct contacts with a number of Congressmen and encouraged them to sign that significant letter.

The letter came hardly on the heels of statements by London Mayor Ken Livingstone on Tuesday, February 10.

Livingstone slammed the measure as “anti-Muslim measure”, accusing Chirac of playing a “terribly, terribly dangerous game”.

Demonstrations

The French tendency to pass the law has enraged a great number of Muslims in France and other world states, as demonstration have been held in French, European and Arab cities; the latest of which was on February 6.

A large scale alliance of civil freedom organizations and Muslim and Arab organizations in the U.S. and Canada organized a series of demonstrations on January 17 in front of the French consulates in the U.S. ad Canada to call for the right of Muslim women in France to wear hijab in governmental schools.

Demonstrations were organized in front of the French consulates in 12 U.S. and Canadian cities, including Washington, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto.

The alliance included a large number of organizations such as Muslim Student Associations in the U.S. and Canada, freedom institutions affiliated to the U.S. Islamic Association, CAIR branches and a large number of Islamic centers and institutions in the U.S. and Canada.

French Muslims are due to demonstrate against that law.

The bill has been opposed by other religious faiths, including Sikhs. Secular and human rights associations, including the French Human Rights Association and the Movement against Racism and for Friendship among Nations, have also opposed the law.

The International Religious Freedom report, released by the U.S. State Department Thursday, December 18, voiced concerns over French plans to ban the religious insignia