December 12, 2003	Friday	Shawwal 17, 1424

PARIS, Dec 11: A committee of French experts on Thursday recommended a ban on Muslim headscarves and Jewish skull-cap in schools in order to reaffirm the country’s secular identity, which they warned is under threat from growing religious factionalism.

The 20-member committee, headed by former minister Bernard Stasi, said Muslim headscarves are a “conspicuous” sign of religious affiliation and should be forbidden in the classroom along with Jewish skull-caps and large crosses.

Drawn up after three months of consultations across the country, the report was handed over on Thursday morning to President Jacques Chirac, who will announce next week whether he supports putting the recommendations into law.

It also suggests making the Eidul Azha and Jewish Yom Kippur annual holidays in state schools; the creation of a national school of Islamic studies; and the provision of alternative meals in public canteens to practising Muslims and Jews.

Mr Chirac has hinted he favours a tough assertion of France’s separation of religion and state, telling an audience in Tunisia last week that “we cannot accept ostentatious signs of religious proselytism, whatever the religion”.

The government estimates that several thousand teenage girls are today wearing the headscarf in school — prompting the anger of many who see it as a symbol both of religious extremism and female subservience. A handful of girls have been excluded from school for refusing to uncover themselves.

According to the report, the headscarf issue is “no longer a question of freedom of conscience but of public order”.

It said a vast majority of school directors and teachers wanted a law banning religious insignia in order to counter “the tensions which are created by claims of religious identity, the formation of gangs for example and community-based factions in the playground and canteens”.

While recommending a ban on the headscarf as well as the Jewish kippa and “large” Christian crosses, it said “discreet” symbols such as Stars of David, Muslim hands of Fatima or small crosses were acceptable.

After receiving the report Mr Chirac said he would deliver his verdict on Wednesday. “The objective is to guarantee freedom to every French citizen, with the only restriction that the common rules be respected,” he said.

The headscarf debate has created deep divisions in French society, pitting champions of French secularism against defenders of immigrants’ rights, and Muslims who support assimilation against other Muslims who want to maintain their separate identity.

France has both the largest Muslim population in Europe — around five million — and the largest Jewish minority — around 600,000. Tensions between the two communities have grown acute in the last two years.

One of the country’s leading Muslims, Paris mosque rector Dalil Boubakeur, said he would call on Muslims to respect any law, but he would ask for a grace period of several months “so that everyone can take stock of the fact that things have changed”.

Anti-racism groups were divided in their reaction to the report, with SOS-Racism saying a new law would take the pressure off teachers, but the Movement Against Racism (MRAP) saying that “one religion is clearly in the firing-line: Islam”.

The debate has been encouraged by the fact that the existing legal framework is open to interpretation.

Currently religious insignia are banned in school if they are reckoned to be “ostentatious”, but opponents of the headscarf say the term is too vague. Hardliners wanted “visible” signs to be prohibited, and the Stasi committee settled as a compromise with “conspicuous”. —AFP