The Hindu : French Muslims rally against 'scarf ban'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 18, 2004

International

International

French Muslims rally against 'scarf ban'

By Vaiju Naravane

PARIS, JAN. 17. The much-touted rally in Paris by France's Muslim population to protest against a proposed law banning the wearing of religious symbols, including the Muslim head scarf, in French state-run schools failed to generate the expected enthusiasm.

The numbers towards late afternoon did not exceed five thousand protesters against the 20,000 expected by the organisers.

Organised by a small group called the Party of French Muslims (PMF), the rally kicked off at around 2 pm (1300 GMT), and was expected to later draw up to 20,000 people.

According to police sources, many communities had travelled by coach and train from far-flung suburbs around the French capital, home to many of France's estimated five million Muslims. Many in the community see the proposed law as an act of religious and social discrimination.

Many of the demonstrators were women wearing the traditional headscarf. Simultaneous protests were staged in London and several Muslim countries including Lebanon, Syria, Sudan and Yemen.

The demonstration set off from Paris' Place de la Republique at two o'clock. French flags dotted the crowds, while a truck blared out the French national anthem and one banner read "France you are my country, hijab you are my life".

Wearing a black headscarf, a woman demonstrator addressed the crowd from a truck at the procession head: "We are here today, all of us, to defend our freedom, given that our dear country is a land of freedom. We hope the Government will hear our call today."

Several demonstrators called out slogans aimed directly at the French President, Jacques Chirac, such as: "Chirac, our headscarf is not an attack on the Republic."

Last month, Mr. Chirac said he would ask Parliament to pass a new `secularism' law whose main provision would be to make it illegal for any student to wear `ostensible' religious signs or symbols.

Many teenage Muslim girls who wish to attend classes with their heads covered see this as a direct attack against them and their community. The bill is to get its first reading in parliament on February 3.

France's 6,000-strong Sikh community is also directly affected by the proposed law.

The Sikhs did not participate in today's demonstration, preferring to demonstrate separately. Their leader, Chail Singh, told :For us to take off our turban is like walking naked in the street. We have made many sacrifices for France. We are good, law-abiding citizens. We shall be holding a separate protest."

The French Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, told a press conference in the southern Alpes-Maritimes region on Saturday that street protests "would not help move things forward", stressing that "no one should feel targeted, victimised or attacked" by the proposals.

Dalil Boubakeur, moderate head of the French Council for the Muslim Religion (CFCM) — Islam's official representation in France — has urged Muslims to stay away from Saturday's demonstration, describing it as "counter-productive".

However, the Union of Islamic Organisations of France (UOIF), the largest group within the CFCM, called on Muslims to demonstrate calmly and responsibly to show that "the Muslim population of France has faith in the republic".

Smaller rallies also went ahead throughout France, with 1,800 people marching in the southern city of Marseilles, 1,000 in the eastern city of Mulhouse and a hundred in southwestern Toulouse.

In Toulouse, one banner read: "The headscarf is a divine prescription, not a religious sign".

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