A New Form of Discrimination Against Muslims in France, Schoolchildren Targeted!

Imposing laws and procedures that restrict Muslims seemed not enough for the French government that went far beyond that. It turned schoolchildren into a front line of conflict with French Muslims.

In its latest measure, The Wall Street Journal revealed that local authorities in the French city of Béziers had imposed the only pork offered to schoolchildren in the hilltop city in southern France.

A report prepared by the French journalist Nomi Persep, and published by the American newspaper, said: "Schools throughout France have become a battlefield between Muslims and advocates of secularism."

"Many Muslim families believe that the authorities have expanded their interpretation of secularism and applied it to everything, in ways that target Muslim beliefs," Persep added.

She emphasized the Muslims' resentment from the French interference in their lives, which "reached what should be eaten in school and what is the accurate dressing code for veiled Muslim mother accompany their children on trips."

 

Targeting Muslims

The French journalist said: "The imposition of broad secular rules in French society made Muslims targeted."

She stressed that "public schools throughout France have become the front lines of a burning conflict between segments of the large Muslim minority in France and supporters of secularism in it."

She also referred to the conflict situation over "the strict separation of religion and state in the country adopted by the government of Emmanuel Macron."

Béziers Mayor Robert Maynard, who was elected in 2014, canceled the 2021 alternative meals for school children, with the support of far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who is preparing for the April 2022 elections.

Pork is imposed as the only option on Muslim students, despite the prohibition of eating it in Islamic law. It comes under the pretext of consolidating the principle of secularism and freedom.

Which leads to the question: Is imposing eating pork consistent with secularism, which is supposed to be based on freedom as a basic principle?

 

School Law

The imposition of pork was not the only measure that affected Muslims. Rather, it was an element of the discrimination process that targeted Muslims of France and their freedom of choice.

In May 2019, the French Senate passed the so-called "school law" prepared by the French government, including an article prohibiting Muslim mothers from wearing the veil while accompanying their children on school trips.

The French Senate justified this measure by consolidating secularism. "The law fills a legal gap in the implementation of secularism," Jacqueline Eustache Bregnot, a member of the right-wing Republicans party, told local media.

Regarding the argument of government officials in the French city, the American newspaper reports that this is done with the justification of “resisting cultural transformations that have been taking place for decades, as schools are under pressure to accommodate the religious beliefs of French Muslims.”

The newspaper quotes French teachers as saying that pressure on them in this matter weakens a republic based on the principles of secularism, equality, freedom and fraternity.

The teachers claim that "students rely on their religious beliefs in some of their choices, for some matters such as music lessons and biology lessons, and the girls' refusal to swim lessons and musical excursions."

 

Against The French Law

On the other hand, government officials saw that this measure contradicts the decisions of the French Council of State.

Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said the law "contradicts the decisions of the Council of State, and creates many problems for the development of school trips."

When talking about the problems mentioned by the French minister, the case of the 18-year-old Chechen refugee and student Abdullah Anzorov, who in October 2020 killed 47-year-old history professor Samuel Baty.

This incident came against Abdullah's protest against his French teacher's use of an offensive picture of the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad (peace be upon him), which was published by the French magazine "Charlie Hebdo" earlier.

Abdullah was not the only one angry at the behavior of the history teacher; Hundreds of students refused to stand a minute's silence for the teacher's death, according to a statement by the French Ministry of Education.

France's highest administrative court ruled in December 2020 that the principle of "secularism does not prevent schools from serving meals that do not contain pork, in response to religious beliefs, but they are not obligated to do so."

This judicial ruling came on the basis of a complaint filed by an Islamic association in the city of Chalons-Sorson, in eastern France.

The director of the Council of Jewish Institutions in France, Francis Califat, told the "Wall Street Journal" that "the suspension of alternative meals (for pork) creates unnecessary problems, and causes a number of children to be removed from school life."

A French-Jewish businessman of Algerian origin asserted that "a few Jewish students will suffer from problems because most of them are children of religious Jewish families, and they will have to go to private religious schools that are not subject, like most religious schools, to the laws of secularism."

A number of French parliamentarians saw that these measures come with the aim of achieving political gains, as the deputy in the "Socialist Party" Vivien Artigallas criticized the law and said: "Secularism should not be used as a tool to achieve political gains."

These statements come at a time when a number of parties are seeking to win over the growing "extreme right" in France, in conjunction with the preparations for the presidential elections scheduled on April 10 and 24, 2022.

It is the election that is likely to turn the page on Macron, and nominate a new president of France for the next five-year term.

 

Empowering Macron

Intending to achieve political gains for his party, and to reinforce the practice of local authorities in France to impose unilateral choices on students in schools, Macron in June 2021 introduced a bill to Parliament to criminalize pressure on teachers or any other employee in the name of religion.

In June 2021, the French Ministry of Education announced a 4-year program aimed at training teachers in the principles of secularism, after the ministry observed incidents during online classes due to Covid-19, religious chants and killing videos.

In a speech given by Macron in this regard, he said, "The republic will resist through schools those who want to fight it or divide it."

He criticized local officials who, he claimed, had yielded to pressure from local minority associations or communities and considered serving religious meals in school cafeterias.

The American newspaper believes that Macron is seeking what he calls the eradication of the independence of Muslims in France.

In order to reach this matter, Macron called for the implementation of a package of measures against Muslims, starting with mosques and religious centers.

Then Macron's measures dealt with the veil, the Islamic dress and the school meals, specifically pork as a daily meal without other alternatives of meat that take into account the beliefs of Muslims.