PARIS (AP) – French lawmakers debated a bill on Monday hoping to uproot radical Islam in the country, believing authorities maintain they are getting into public services, associations, some schools and in line with the goal of undermining national values.
The bill is broad and controversial, with nearly 1,700 amendments proposed, and guarantees a heated debate over the next two weeks in the lower house.
Opening the debate, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, sponsor of the bill, said the aim is to stop “a hostile Islamist takeover of Muslims.” He stressed that “we are not fighting against a religion,” although some Muslims in France have expressed concern that a new layer of stigma will be added to them. Other religions, from Buddhists to Roman Catholics, have complained that they could also suffer consequences from the text.
The bill reflects a priority for President Emmanuel Macron, who in an October speech painted a bleak picture of what he called “separatism,” a perverse version of Islam, France’s number 2 religion, which he raided quietly and created a “counter-society.”
Darmanin echoed the president in his initial statements to lawmakers, saying that “our country suffers from a disease of separatism, especially Islamist separatism that is like the gangrene that infects our national unity.”
Darmanin, a right-wing member of Macron’s centrist party, took on his mission of proposing a law with zeal, writing a short book to be published in the coming days, “Manifesto for Secularism,” a fundamental value of France that the bill he sponsored is meant to protect.
The multiple attacks carried out in France by Islamist extremists provide a backdrop for the bill, even if the recent violence was committed by outsiders.
The text applies to all religions, but some Muslims say the legislation points to Islam again.
Other critics say the bill covers land already covered by current laws, while far-right leader Marine Le Pen says the bill doesn’t go far enough or even name the enemy. : radical Islam.
The proposed law is one aspect of the French president’s proposal to do what his predecessors tried and failed to do: create a tailor-made “Islam of France”. Separately, the government’s official channel, the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), was pushed to create a “charter of principles for Islam in France”, completed last month after much fighting between the federations. Muslims.
Muslim leaders kept a low profile when the debate opened.
Small and large, the bill seeks to oversee the operation of associations and mosques, including foreign funding, and aims to connect the entry points of Islamist ideology into the lives of Muslims.
Mohammed Moussaoui, head of the CFCM, said in a hearing of the parliamentary committee in January that the new oversight of the associations of the bill is “useful, necessary to fight those who want to instrumentalize the associations” to counter French values . However, he expressed concern that officials could “use this tool to annoy associations, good students” by following the rules.
The head of the Islam Foundation, a secular organization representing progressive Islam, called the proposed law “unfair but necessary.”
Although Muslims are not mentioned in the text, “only one religion but one category of citizenship” stands out, Ghaleb Bencheikh said in a telephone interview. It is necessary because “French society, the French nation is traumatized by the attacks and the reality of radical Islam.” While the radicals are a minority, “it is the minorities that make up history,” Bencheikh added.
Among the 51 articles, the bill aims to ensure that public service employees respect neutrality and secularism, while protecting them from threats or violence.
To try to protect children from indoctrination and end underground schools, the text requires all children from the age of 3 to attend a regular school. About 50,000 children were schooled at home by 2020, according to French media. But the number of “clandestine schools” where children are indoctrinated in radical ideology is unknown.
Among other key points, the bill aims to closely monitor associations, including those that often run mosques, with measures that include one aimed at ensuring that outsiders cannot control the control of an association.
Another measure requires associations that receive state funds to sign a “Republican engagement contract” that guarantees compliance with French values. Funding needs to be funded if the contract is broken. Although foreign funding for mosques is not prohibited, amounts in excess of 10,000 euros ($ 12,100) must be declared.
If some Muslims feel a new layer of stigma, other French religions feel collateral damage. The newspaper Le Monde reported that they were unanimous in their criticisms of the treatment of religious associations, according to leaders that a parliamentary committee adds unnecessary layers of work, oversight and suspicion of all denominations.
The proposed law also seeks to curb the issuance by doctors of certificates of virginity, the practice of polygamy and forced marriage. Doctors would be fined and risk jail time for providing certificates of virginity.
The law includes an article that Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti has called “Paty’s law,” after the beheading of school teacher Samuel Paty, which showed students in a civics class caricatures of the prophet. It creates a new crime for online hate speech in which someone’s personal data is posted. A Chechen refugee beheaded Paty after information about the teacher spread online.
The parliamentary debate comes after the French president’s defense of the right to produce or display these cartoons after the beheading of the school teacher, a stance on free speech that upset many Muslims abroad. He sparked protests in several countries where Macron’s position was perceived as anti-Muslim, which his government strongly denies. An international group of pro-Muslim groups filed a complaint last month with the UN Human Rights Committee, accusing the French government of “Islamophobic attitudes”.