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Mosque construction and finance is a fundamental demand in calling for the 1905 Act's amendment. |
At the end of 2005The subject of mosque construction and finance is a fundamental demand in calling for 1905's adjustment, France celebrated the centennial anniversary in remembrance of the adoption of secular legislation, which separated the church and state. The French National Assembly passed the law on December 9, 1905.
The centennial celebrations were marred by ongoing controversy regarding the need to reformulate the act in order to improve Islam's standing within France. Does France really need to amend the secular act to integrate Islam as a new component of French culture?
The 1905 Act prohibits state recognition and finance of religions
Early in 2005, a statement was issued by the French presidential palace (the Elysee Palace) which emphasized the 1905 Act as being at the "core of the republic" and giving legitimacy to France's secular government. Some observers attributed the step to heated competition between French president Jacques Chirac and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy. The latter had demanded in his book, The Republic, Religions, and Hope (La République, les religions, l'espérance), which was published in 2004, that the 1905 Act be modified to give Islam equal privileges enjoyed by other religions in France. Sarkozy also called for introducing reforms for building mosques and financing of Muslim institutions.
State Recognition
| The 1905 Act prohibits state recognition and finance of religions. |
The recognition of Islam as an official religion by the establishment of the French Council for the Muslim Religion did not halt debates about amending the 1905 Act. Reform advocates argue that the law was passed at a time when Islam did not represent the significant social bearing it does today. French Muslims, numbering between five and six million, now constitute the largest Muslim minority in Western Europe.
Reform advocates base their claims on the fact that the 1905 Act — which prohibits state recognition and the finance of religions — was passed during an era when Christianity and Judaism received considerable acknowledgement in French society, built their own places of worship, and were self-financed. Some feel this does not concur with Islam's position today as it is a new religion in France and has a relatively recent institutional establishment.
Amending the Legislation
Furthermore, amending the act becomes even more crucial among its supporters when it comes to certain French regions, such as in the region of Alsace, where the 1905 Act has never been implemented. In such areas, Christianity and Judaism are taught to children in schools, while Islam is not.
In Strasbourg, the capital of Alsace, where the calls to amend the legislation first emerged, the Archbishop of Strasbourg stressed, in an interview with the Christian journal La Croix (December 12, 2003), the necessity of allowing Islam to be taught along with the two other major religions in public schools. The archbishop explained that "permitting Muslims to these rights, not only in Alsace, is the only means to seriously integrate them into France."
In reaction to the centennial celebrations of the 1905 Act, a massive demonstration, organized by the left-wing secularists, filled the streets of Paris on December 9, 2005. Protestors demanded that any form of religious teaching in Alsace be abolished and that institutions in Alsace conform to regulations governing most French public schools. These demands were aimed not only at secularizing schools in Alsace, but more importantly, at stopping those who consider Alsace an example of inequality that consequently caused discrimination against Islam.
Debating Foreign Financing
The subject of mosque construction and finance was a fundamental demand voiced by those backing the modification of the 1905 Act. This came after the French media had focused on the issue of ending foreign financing of Muslim institutions in France in order to overcome what officials considered to be the impact of imported Islam on the local version. Sarkozy described it as the quest to "find a French Islam."
However, the dilemma facing the minister is that if France were to cut off funding from abroad to French Muslim institutions, this would necessitate the French government to play a larger role in financing Muslim institutions, despite that this would ultimately negate the essence of the 1905 Act. For this reason, Sarkozy has spearheaded a campaign pledging government sponsorship of Muslim institutions. But Sarkozy also warned that such a move would "require revising the state's neutrality doctrine altogether."
A compromise was reached to create a foundation in mid-2005 to resolve this paradox vis à vis the secularists (who view the 1905 Act as a core base of the French republic and therefore impossible to amend) by founding the Fondation pour les Oeuvres de l'Islam de France for funding Muslim places of worship. When Dominique de Villepin succeeded Sarkozy (who became the minister of finance) as interior minister (from March to November 2004), he was supervising the foundation's establishment, which was later ratified by the highest judicial body in France on May 31, 2005. Yet, despite its government sanction, the foundation was presented as a private body with the government secretly contributing to its capital.
The months following the founding of the foundation did not witness a radical solution to the controversy about whether the secular law should be amended or preserved. The debate only continued to escalate even more.
Against Religious Manifestations
The extreme French secularists argued that the 1905 Act should not only be preserved but also backed with further legislation of the same kind. They especially called for confronting the donning of religious symbols in public places, in particular, those of Muslims. After the passing of the law prohibiting religious symbols (such as the hijab in public schools) on March 15, 2004, new calls have recently surfaced, demanding the law be extended to include hospitals and public administrations, arguing that the secularism of public space should be preserved.
Obviously, this kind of discourse is characterized by Islamophobia that is propagated by those who fear that France will be transformed into a Islamic state. They claim that Islamic culture is opposed to integration and that Muslims themselves are opposed to integrating into society — therefore the problem of integrating Muslims into the French society would be "eternal."
However, it appears quite obvious to observers that politicians are using the preservation or amendment of the 1905 Act in their interest to win elections. The upcoming elections will draw on the rivalry within the right-wing and left-wing parties. While the Muslim community constitutes a significant percentage of the votes, some politicians may make use of their hostile stances against the Muslim community to guarantee the extreme-right votes.
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