Muslims wary of French plan to toughen ban on veils
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
By JAMEY KEATEN, The Associated Press
Because of her choice to wear a headscarf, Samia Kaddour, a
Muslim, has all but abandoned trying to land a government job in
France. Soon, some private sector jobs could be off limits, too.
French President François Hollande says he wants a new law that
could extend restrictions on the wearing of prominent religious
symbols in state jobs into the private sector. His new approach comes
after a top French court ruled in March that a daycare operator that
gets some state funding unfairly fired a woman in a headscarf,
sparking a political backlash.
As Christians celebrated Easter on Sunday, Kaddour attended the
four-day Annual Meeting of Muslims of France in Le Bourget, north of
Paris. The convention, which last year drew some 160,000 and was
expected to grow this year, is billed as the largest annual gathering of
its kind in Europe. It is in its 30th year and ended Monday.
French law bars state employees from wearing prominent religious
symbols such as Muslim headscarves, Jewish skullcaps or large
Christian crosses in public schools, welfare offices or other
government facilities. Two years ago, France banned Muslim veils that
cover faces from being worn anywhere in public.
Meeting leaders say France has made progress in accepting Muslims
and noted that, unlike 30 years ago, women wearing headscarves
today rarely draw suspicion, scowls or curiosity. Still, many Muslims -
and even some Roman Catholics and Jews - fear France's insistence
on secular values first enshrined in the French Revolution more than
two centuries ago is unfairly crimping their ability to express their
religious beliefs freely.
They also worry that Hollande's Socialist government, like a
conservative one before it, wants to score political points.
"Islam has become a political instrument," said Kaddour, 26, who is a
community activist from the English Channel port city of Le Havre and
one of 10 children of Algerian-born parents who moved to France for
plentiful jobs during its economic boom times decades ago. "Islam is
always brandished whenever there is internal political discord."
Many Muslims fear an encroaching Islamophobia, while proponents of
such measures insist they counter extremism and act as a rampart to
protect France's identity against inequality.
© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette
IslamiCity.com
) but pay attention to what she say which is more practical
