PARIS (AP) – French lawmakers on Monday discussed a bill they hope will uproot radical Islam in the country, beliefs that the authorities uphold, sneak into public services, associations, some schools and online with the aim of undermining national values .
The bill is wide-ranging and controversial, with about 1,700 proposed changes, and guarantees heated debate in the lower house for the next two weeks.
Home Secretary Gerald Darmanin, the bill’s sponsor, opened the debate, saying the goal is to stop “an Islamic hostile takeover against Muslims.” He stressed that “we are not fighting a religion”, although some Muslims in France have expressed concern that it will add a new layer of stigmatization to them. Other religions, from Buddhists to Roman Catholics, have complained that they could also affect the text.
The bill reflects a priority for President Emmanuel Macron, who in an October speech painted a dark picture of what he called “ separatism, ” a perverse version of Islam, France’s second religion, quietly emerging and a “ counter society. ‘created.
Darmanin echoed the president in his opening speech to lawmakers, saying, “Our country is suffering from a disease of separatism, primarily an Islamist separatism that, like gangrene, infects our national unity.”
Darmanin, a right-leaning member of Macron’s centrist party, took up his mission of diligently proposing a law by writing a short book to be released in the coming days, “ Manifesto for Secularism ” – a fundamental value of France that the bill he sponsored is meant to protect.
Multiple attacks in France by Islamist extremists provide a backdrop to the bill, even if recent violence was committed by outsiders.
The text applies to all religions, but some Muslims say the legislation is once again pointing the finger at Islam.
Other critics say the bill covers territory already covered in current laws, while far-right leader Marine Le Pen says the bill doesn’t go far enough or even calls the enemy: radical Islam.
The proposed law is one aspect of the French president’s attempt to do what his predecessors tried and didn’t do: create a tailor-made “Islam of France”. Separately, the official channel to the government, the French Council of the Muslim Faith, or CFCM, was urged to draft a “Charter of Principles for the Islam of France”, completed last month after much wrangling among Muslim federations.
Muslim leaders held back when the debate began.
The bill seeks to monitor the functioning of associations and mosques in small and large ways, including foreign funding, and aims to connect entry points for Islamist ideology into the lives of Muslims.
Mohammed Moussaoui, head of the CFCM, said at a January parliamentary committee hearing that the bill’s new oversight of associations “is useful and necessary to combat those who wish to instrumentalize associations” to counter French values. However, he expressed concern that officials “could use this tool to harass associations, the good students” under the rules.
The head of the Foundation of Islam, a secular organization representing progressive Islam, called the proposed law “unjust but necessary.”
Although Muslims are not mentioned in the text, “only one religion, but one category of citizens” is mentioned, Ghaleb Bencheikh said in a telephone interview. It is necessary because “French society, the French nation, has been traumatized by attacks and the reality of radical Islam.” While radicals are a minority, “it is minorities that make up history,” Bencheikh added.
Of the 51 articles, the bill aims to ensure that public service officials respect neutrality and secularism while protecting them from threats or violence.
In order to protect children from indoctrination and to abolish underground schools, the text requires all children from the age of 3 to attend a regular school. According to French media, about 50,000 children were homeschooled in 2020. But the number of “clandestine schools” where children are alleged to be indoctrinated into radical ideology is unknown.
The bill aims to closely monitor associations, including those that often run mosques, including measures to ensure that outsiders cannot take control of an association.
Another measure requires associations receiving state resources to sign a “Republican commitment contract” to ensure that they respect French values. Funding must be repaid if the contract is broken. While foreign funding for mosques is not prohibited, amounts in excess of 10,000 euros ($ 12,100) must be declared.
As some Muslims feel a new layer of stigmatism, France’s other religions feel additional damage. The Le Monde newspaper reported that they were unanimous in their criticism of the treatment of religious associations, telling leaders that a parliamentary committee is adding unnecessary layers of work, scrutiny and suspicion for all religions.
The proposed law also aims to end doctors’ issuing of virginity certificates, the practice of polygamy, and forced marriage. Doctors are fined and face jail time for issuing virginity certificates.
The law contains an article that Attorney General Eric Dupond-Moretti has called the “Paty Law”, after the beheading of schoolteacher Samuel Paty who showed students caricatures of the prophet in a social studies lesson. It creates a new crime for hate speech online in which someone’s personal information is posted. A Chechen refugee beheaded Paty after information about the teacher was circulated online.
The parliamentary debate comes after the French president has defended the right to produce or display such caricatures after the teacher’s beheading, a free speech position that upset many Muslims abroad. It sparked protests in multiple countries where Macron’s position was seen as anti-Muslim, which his government vehemently denies. An international collective of pro-Muslim groups filed a complaint with the UN Human Rights Committee last month, accusing the French government of “Islamophobic views”.