Posted on 12/11/2003 2:48:16 PM PST by yonif
PARIS - France should ban Muslim veils, Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses from its public schools, while creating new holidays to respect holy days of minority religions, an official report said on Thursday.
The long-awaited report on church-state relations, the center-piece of a national debate over integrating Muslims into French society, advised Paris to stand firm against militant Islamists trying to undermine official secularism.
It also urged traditionally Catholic France to respect "all spiritual options" in its ever more diverse society and stressed that sexual equality was a key criterion in deciding whether certain practices were considered acceptable.
President Jacques Chirac said he would announce next Wednesday whether he would seek a law banning the veil, now a major issue in France amid concern of failed Muslim integration and growing Islamist influence. He has hinted he backs a ban.
France, once so Catholic it was called "the eldest daughter of the Church", is now eight percent Muslim and Islam is its second-largest religion. But eight of its 13 national holidays are based on Christian feasts such as Christmas and Easter.
Its five-million-strong Muslim community and its 600,000 Jews are both the largest minorities of their kind in Europe.
"Secularism essentially means respect for differences," Bernard Stasi, chairman of the special commission that drew up the 67-page report, told a news conference.
But he added: "We must be lucid - there are in France some behaviors which cannot be tolerated. There are without any doubt forces in France which are seeking to destabilise the republic and it is time for the republic to react."
Christian, Muslim and some Jewish religious leaders have in recent days urged Chirac not to seek an outright ban.
The French Council of the Muslim Faith, which say the veil is a religious obligation for women, repeated its opposition to a ban after the report was issued but pledged to back "anything that can strengthen the spirit of concord and tolerance".
The commission proposed barring "conspicuous signs of political or religious affiliation" but said discreet medals - such as a small cross or Star of David - were acceptable.
It also suggested adding Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement, and the Eid al-Fitr festival at the end of Islam's Ramadan fasting month to a list of official school holidays.
Companies were advised to consider ways of allowing employees to take off the religious holiday of their choice.
Apart from the veil, the commission also investigated issues such as Muslim women refusing treatment by male doctors, pupils challenging teachers about the Holocaust and a "new anti-Semitism" among disaffected Muslim youths.
"This anti-Semitism is real in our country," commission secretary Remy Schwartz said. "We found children have to leave public schools in some areas because they are not physically secure... This has profoundly shocked the commission."
The commission was also shocked by cases of discrimination against women and said sexual equality was one of the guiding principles it used for reaching its conclusions.
Schwartz said Muslim girls said they were pressured into wearing veils by family and "outside groups" - a reference to activists officials say are promoting strict religious practices among French Muslims, who are of mostly North African origin.
"Many asked for protection from the state, that the state forbids the wearing of religious symbols in school to guarantee their protection and their individual freedom," he said.
Kamal Kabtane, head of the Grand Mosque of Lyon, said Muslims would respect an anti-veil law, but added: "This decision will resolve nothing at all. It will only add to the confusion."
Former Socialist Education Minister Jack Lang criticised the commission's proposals for not banning all religious symbols.
Jacques Barrot, parliamentary leader of Chirac's UMP party, repeated his reservations about opting for a ban, while the Communist Party criticised the ban and called for a broad public debate about the integration of immigrant communities.
... while the Communist Party criticized the ban and called for a broad public debate about the integration of immigrant communities.
So the socialists are against the communists. Is this part of Bush's war on terrorism turning the enemy on themselves?
Step 1: Eiffel Tower and/or the Louvre will become runways.
Step 2: The French will surrender.
Step 3: Gendarmes and soldiers will distribute Muslim garb "for-free" from flat-bed trailers throughout France.
Step 4: The Cathedral of Notre Dame will be under new management and remodeled to become the grandest mosque in all of Islam.
Vivisection La France!!...
What's shocking to me is you're shocked by the conditions in your OWN COUNTRY while I, sitting out here in BFE (West Texas) know more about what's going on France.
I have no doubts you will be simply SHOCKED.
< /sarcasm>
If you'd like to be on or off this
Christian Supporters of Israel ping list,
please FR mail me. ~
There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had
spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass. (Joshua 21:45)
Letter To The President In Support Of Israel ~
'Final Solution,' Phase 2 ~
And, BTW, I'll bet that we are argreement that it is folly to believe that "it couldn't happen here."
Scary.......
At the risk of taking heat from lurking Frenchmen... When were the French ever a great people much less a great nation? Was that when King Philip was siding with a rogue Pope to massacre the noble Templars upon their return from the crusades? Or was it when they were encouraging American Indians to slaughter colonial women and children in their war for the Americas(setting the tone of hatred for the genocide that followed)? Was that back when, in the course of Liberty, they were guillotineing thousands of their own citizens. Maybe its when they bent over backwards and let a fascist butcher use them like a prostitute.
Food for thought. I do like their toast, though. But, California has better wine.
Been there. And not at all afraid to do just that. In fact, in light of their cheeky bravado and were it worth the price of a ticket, I just might. Perhaps I'll head to Vancouver this weekend instead and get a bit of sparring-time in on Canadians. Its been awhile.
As for you... Touche, my friend. You can stand down, as I am working late and just being deliberately provocative at the French expense. I have known and met wonderful French people and I do not doubt that the nation is full of individuals of strong character who support our cause.
Oh but how I would love to pick a bar fight tonight with one who did not.
You make good points. But, California still makes better wine.
Peace!
And Burkeman, the French, Germans, Brits, and Spaniards have done their share of horror, destroying entire civilizations in their wakes. Africa is a dying monument to their need for conquest.
Half of my ancestry is Native here. They called the missionaries *Blackrobes* and it was surrender, convert, or die. Sounds like the Muslims now, centuries later. We have heard all those words before. (Now I call the Supreme Court the *Blackrobes.*)
Whatever the bitch, we have never done to Europe what Europe has seen fit to do to us and to others in so many places and in so many ways.
Immorality is what it is. It isn't enlightenment to be narcissistic, and they definitely are. It isn't sophisticated to resort to hedonism, but they do. It isn't civil to want to conquer the entire world, but they have been heartless conquerors and destroyers of civilizations.
You would think that they might have become civilized themselves by now. But they haven't. And they want to steal ours away.
They are doing it too, slowly but surely. It will never be time to forgive them for they have never sought forgiveness. In their smugness, they believe themselves superior.
Not in THIS life. They are arrogant and G-d willing, their time has run out.
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