French National Assembly Passes Anti-Extremism Bill Proposing Stricter Rules for Religion

Catholic News Agency ^ | 2/17/21 | Staff

[marshmallow]

Paris, France, Feb 17, 2021 / 05:36 pm MT (CNA).- The French National Assembly has passed a bill that backers say will counter extremism and separatism, especially among French Muslims. However, the bill includes stricter controls on religion, bars religious symbols in some circumstances, and places strict regulations on homeschooling.

The bill, titled “Supporting respect for the principles of the Republic,” aims to uphold “French values” like secularism and gender equality. It passed the National Assembly Feb. 16 by a vote of 347-151 with 65 abstentions. The body is controlled by President Emmanuel Macron’s center-liberal party.

The bill is considered a near certainty to pass the conservative-controlled Senate, though the bill will not go before that body until March 30.

Macron has said action is needed to prevent the emergence of a “counter-society” that rejects French law and values like secularism and equality, Agence France Presse reports.

In a Jan. 29 interview with a dozen foreign correspondents, Macron said that “I demand of every citizen, whatever their religion, to respect the rules of the Republic, because he or she is a citizen before being a believer or a nonbeliever.”

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, the bill’s main sponsor, has said the bill provides “better protection for women who are victims of religious obscurantism.”

“It's an extremely strong secular offensive,” he told RTL radio ahead of the vote. “It's a tough text... but necessary for the republic.”

Some critics of the bill, however, object that it targets Muslims and infringes upon religious freedom and freedom of association.

The French population is majority Christian, with sizable numbers professing no religion. Muslims make up about 8% of the French population. For more than a century France has had a strong secularist tradition of laïcité, formed mainly in reaction to Catholicism, but in recent decades.......

[Marchmain]

So all religions are to be suppressed in attempt to control Islam?

[Bishop_Malachi]

So all religions are to be suppressed in attempt to control Islam?

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Yes! Macron put it as bluntly as you can put it. “You are a citizen first. A believer or non-believer second.” I think Macron is fooling himself greatly if he really believes that, but hey, that’s just my opinion.