French President Jacques Chirac, in an important policy
speech, announced that he supports legislations banning head
covering in schools, but is against making Jewish and Moslem
holidays into national days off from school.
A major public debate has erupted in France following a
report by the Presidential Committee on Secularization in
France, calling for special legislation prohibiting
"ostentatious political and religious signs" in French
schools--namely Jewish boys wearing yarmulkes and
Muslim girls wearing head-coverings. The 20 committee members
appointed by President Jacques Chirac made public their
unanimous recommendations at a time when France is entangled
in rising Islamic extremism in the suburbs, along with
antisemitic incitement and attacks. Yet at the same time they
raised a problematic proposal to make Yom Kippur and Id Al
Atbha school holidays.
The weekly Liberation described the proposal to make
Yom Kippur a day off in French schools as a "revolution."
"Jews have lived in Europe for thousands of years without the
countries celebrating their holidays." The government and the
French are unlikely to agree to this revolution. Committee
Member Patrick Vail said the proposal shows the committee
does not act against specific communities but against
peripheral manifestations in the Muslim and Jewish
communities. "France will be the first country, following
Israel, where Yom Kippur will be a day off," said Vail.
The French people are resistant to the idea of declaring Yom
Kippur a French day of rest and even more opposed to the
Muslim festival when, to their great displeasure, thousands
of sheep are slaughtered. A leading headline in Le
Monde read, "Yom Kippur and Muslim Holiday Stir Inflamed
Confrontations." Right-wing parties termed granting two
additional days off "absurd," particularly for holidays
belonging to minority religions. Only the Paris Mayor
supported the initiative. According to the Elysee, Chirac
rejected the proposal and disregarded it in his speech since
it runs counter to the committee's assigned task of
rehabilitating secularism.
The law against the head-covering is intended to stop the
spread of zealous Islam in France, which many say is
threatening the republic. Speaking at the Elysee, Committee
Chairman Bernard Stazzi said the bill would "protect the
country from forces trying to challenge its stability." The
churches, the Muslims, the radical left and Le Pen all oppose
the proposed law, each for a different reason. Jews are
expressing mixed feelings toward the proposals, based on
contradictory considerations. They favor halting Islam and
are against equating the status of Jews in France to that of
the Muslims and equating the Islamic head-covering to the
yarmulke.
The church and Le Pen are rising up against the ban imposed
on Christian symbols that were removed from French schools
one hundred years ago when the country took the schools out
of the Catholic church's hands and established a secular
government and educational system at the end of a historic
struggle between the secularists and the Catholics. A vague,
ritualistic secular identity took the place of France's
Catholic culture in schools and public institutions. One
hundred years later Islam is penetrating French schools and
trying to impose Arab culture instead of adopting French
values.
Committee members said they collected hundred of testimonies
on damage done to the French tradition of tolerance and
equality in schools. The hundreds of Maghrebi Arabic
schoolgirls who have begun to come to school wearing head-
coverings are just part of the problem. The French view the
trend as a challenge to secular state authority and an
attempt to impose foreign customs on France. Using threats
and violence, Islamic students prevent teachers from teaching
certain subjects such as the Holocaust, science and history.
In response French students come to class dressed in
Christian attire.
According to a Le Monde survey 50 percent of the
French people say they no longer feel at home in France,
because of the head-covering and the violence by Arabs in the
suburbs. The French are alarmed at the sight of schoolgirls
with Islamic head-coverings entering the school gates. All of
France is caught up in an impassioned public debate over the
head-coverings. Arguments rage in the newspapers over whether
the law would be effective in halting the spread of Islamic
fanaticism in schools and in helping assimilate the Arabs or
whether it is a lost cause.
The yarmulke is included in the law merely to prevent
it from being interpreted as anti-Arab discrimination. Nobody
claims the yarmulke threatens France's stability, but
the prohibition against it demonstrates the French show less
tolerance toward the development of chareidi communities in
France. Chareidi attire and the massive teshuvoh
movement are described with revulsion and ridiculed in
newspaper cartoons.
Religious Jewish students who still study in state schools
will have a problem. The Chief Rabbi, HaRav Yosef Sitruk,
expressed opposition to the prohibition. Appearing before the
committee he said the Jews support the secularization of the
state, which provides equality for all religions, but not a
myopic secularization that bans yarmulkes and one in
which teachers punish students who do not come to take tests
on Shabbos. Moise Cohen, president of the Paris Consistoire,
said the rabbinate opposes the law, which is liable to drive
the Muslim community toward extremism. "Among them this is
perceived as discrimination," he said.
Until a few years ago Jews did not dare wear a yarmulke
in the street and certainly did not come to school
wearing one, but that has changed and today yarmulkes
can be seen in the street and in the Metro. Still, most
religious Jews send their children to private Jewish schools,
where the prohibition will not apply. In any case Jews have
had to remove their yarmulkes because of the danger of
being attacked by Arabs.
The committee itself voiced concern over the antisemitism
rampant in French schools as a side effect of the head-
covering and the Islamization of the children of Maghrebi
immigrants born in France. "Antisemitism is a fact in the
country," said Rami Schwartz, a member of the committee. "We
discovered Jewish children have to leave schools because they
are afraid of being physically assaulted. These figures
shocked the committee profoundly."
The Arabs are outraged over the ban against head-coverings.
Riots broke out in mosques on a recent Friday. Many of the
rioters shouted out that they would not obey the law and
their daughters would continue to come to school with their
head and shoulders covered. In Arab countries the "secular
integration" of France was denounced, while in Morocco Le
Journal denounced Jewish intellectuals in France,
accusing them of directing the campaign against the
Muslims.
Chirac described the Islamic head-covering as "aggression
against the Republic." According to sources in the Elysee,
Chirac will instruct the government to stiffen the law and
not to yield to pressure, in order to preserve the unity of
the Republic. According to French experts it is already too
late to assimilate six million Arabs, with or without their
head-coverings.
