[ May 5, 2024 ]
The controversy has exposed divisions within the centrist ruling party of President Emmanuel Macron which is keenly aware Marine Le Pen’s faction is its chief political foe.
Even the country’s Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer seemed unable to pick a side, stressing Sunday that “the law does not prohibit women wearing headscarves to accompany children”, while saying “the headscarf itself is not desirable in our society” because of “what it says about the status of women, what it says about our values.
The law in France does not yet include a ban on women wearing headscarves while on school trips, but many in France think it would be a good, if incremental, step. In May 2019, the French Senate, by a vote of 186 to 100, passed such a ban, though the National Assembly then rejected it; French public opinion has, however, moved closer to the policies of Marine Le Pen’s FN ever since the murders in Paris of four members of the police by a Muslim terrorist. One suspects that were the ban on wearing hijabs on school trips to now be reintroduced, this time it would have a good chance of passing in both houses. Education Minister Blanquer admits that the law does not prohibit the wearing of headscarves while accompanying children, but also claims “the headscarf is not desirable in our society” – surely that means that he, and other “center-right” members of Macron’s government, would now openly support such a ban. That proposed law should be re-introduced.
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Government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye also weighed in, saying it was important to allow space for exchanges between women who wear headscarves and those who do not, as this promoted “inclusivity”.
To “allow space for exchanges between women who wear headscarves and those who do not”? Sure, but there are already plenty of places for them to meet. The most awkward and inappropriate place for these “exchanges” of views between the hijabbed and unhijabbed is in the schools, or when accompanying children on school trips. Should they be talking about such matters in front of children? There are cafes, meeting halls, private homes, where such discussions can take place.
But Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire came to the defence of “a culture in which religion remains in the intimate, private sphere and does not have a place in (the) public sphere.”
And Budget Minister Gerald Darmanin added: “I would prefer that women in the Republic, in France, do not wear a headscarf.”
This suggests that some of Macron’s cabinet would be willing to back more comprehensive bans on the hijab – perhaps applying it not just to schools, but extending it to all government offices, in the spirit of laicite.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told parliament he was opposed to any kind of new law specifically targeting what should be worn on school trips.
He reminded MPS on Tuesday that laws set out in France’s declaration of the rights of man in 1789 and the 1905 law that separates church and states protects citizens’ freedoms of belief and expression of religious belief if it does not provoke public disorder.
“You can wear the veil when accompanying a school trip, but you don’t have the right to proselytise (try to convert others),” Philippe said.
Prime Minister Philippe does not sense the Muslim challenge to the principle of laicite – the complete separation of church and state – that is a cornerstone of the French state, and that is constantly being challenged by the millions of Muslims who have a very different view of religion, and who want it – that is, Islam — to be everywhere visible. He does not worry sufficiently about the triumphalism of Islam, its adherents regarding every victory as a sign of surrender by the Infidels. Their being able to prevent the hijab ban applied to school trips was one such victory. Naturally their hope is now to overturn the hijab ban in the schools, claiming it to be an unconstitutional intrusion of the state into religious affairs.
The controversy is the latest in France over face and body-covering garments which many perceive as inappropriate in a secular country while others argue the garments allow Muslim women to be active participants in French society.
The French state and church were officially separated by law in 1905 to give form to the concept of secularism rooted in the 1789 French Revolution.
In 2004, the government prohibited the wearing of conspicuous religious symbols in public schools and banned the hijab — a garment that covers a woman’s hair but leaves her face exposed — from classrooms and government offices.
The country with Europe’s largest Muslim population is also deeply divided over the body-concealing “burkini” swimsuit, with opposition to the garment forcing the closure of some swimming pools earlier this year in the midst of a heatwave.
One wishes that Macron himself would step forward with his own views. He who once called for a “French Islam” without ever making clear what that would mean, and how it would be imposed on a recalcitrant Muslim population, took a sterner line after the murders of the Paris police. He insisted that the government would unleash a war against terrorists, an “unrelenting fight” against a “distorted, deadly Islam.” This does not impress, for two reasons. First, we have been promised these “unrelenting” fights before, and nothing changes on the ground. The police, and the public, are inhibited from following up leads, or reporting suspicions, for fear of being labelled “Islamophobes.” Macron should have said “No longer should people be afraid of reporting suspicions, nor the police of investigating individuals, for fear of being called ‘Islampohobes.’ The murderer Harpon eluded a thorough investigation of his Salafist connections, with the tragic results we all see.” Perhaps this time the fight really will be “unrelenting.” We shall see.
Second, there was Macron’s use of the word “distorted.” He’s ready to fight a “distorted Islam.” But the Islam he is fighting is not “distorted”; it is orthodox Islam, the Islam that in 109 Qur’anic verses commands Muslims “to fight,” “to kill,” “to smite at the necks of,” “to “strike terror in the hearts of” the Infidels. He continues to pretend that it is not Islam itself, but some mutant “distorted” version that is responsible for all the terrorism and killing. If Macron cannot bring himself to accuse orthodox Islamic of supporting terrorism, then at least he should refrain from calling the ideology he is fighting a “distorted” Islam. He can merely leave out that pusillanimous adjective. He can promise an “unrelenting fight against a murderous form of Islam” without describing it as “distorted.” That still is not a direct placing of the blame on Islam itself, only against “a murderous form” of the faith. But it at least it does not describe that “murderous form” as a “distorted” version of Islam.
And Macron might take the occasion of this contretemps, involving a hijabbed Muslim mother on a school field trip to the regional parliament, and a member of that parliament, Julien Odoul, to urge that the National Assembly reconsider the proposed legislation it voted down earlier this year, and join the Senate in banning the wearing of hijabs by mothers on school trips. This time, given the Paris police murders, and with a push from Macron and several members of his cabinet who have publicly expressed their support for such a ban, it might pass.
For now, that is enough. That is more than enough.
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20 Comments
4 years ago
nothing will change until the politicians start losing their heads
4 years ago
Reply to
MAS
It already is. By what possible mechanism can these now be deported en masse. The seeds of destruction have taken root and a culture gone mad will not let you act to save your country. The war is not coming – it has already started and they have a big jump on us.
4 years ago
Proverbs 29:2 (KJV)
2 “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.”
There are very few righteous or even GOOD leaders left in the world, I do believe President Trump is a GOOD man who has had a change of heart from his ‘old’ ways from before he became President. Trump is taking that GOOD in him and MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN by trying to UNDO the previous Administration’s corrupt policies of bowing to evil, such as IRAN, CAIR, Muslim Brotherhood ties, the Clintons, George Soros, and other people and policies that brought America down to the gutter in the eyes of the World. EVERY ONE OF THOSE ARE TRULY EVIL, in fact, DEMONIC. These Impeachment Hearings are a result of demonic activity within the hearts of the Democrat Party, who have sold their souls to Satan because of the hatred they have for ANYTHING good.
THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP FOR MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN AND FOR STANDING UP FOR US.
There are thousands of angels surrounding President Trump. and God, through His infinite love for His chosen people, Israel, for Christians, and for America, a nation HE founded through righteous and good men, will change the hearts of mean women who have been working against good. THOSE PEOPLE, GOD WILL REWARD. THOSE PEOPLE WHO REFUSE THAT SMALL STILL VOICE THAT TELLS THEM WHAT THEY ARE DOING AGAINST TRUMP, IS WRONG, WILL NEVER HAVE PEACE. GOD WILL PREVAIL UNTIL HIS SON, JESUS RETURNS. Satan may rule over the earth TEMPORARILY, but God rules over Heaven and Hell and the universe for ETERNITY. Jesus owns the keys of Heaven and Hell. He will return them to the Father after Judgement Day and just be one of us! In the meantime, JESUS is the ONLY way to Heaven.
TRUMP/PENCE 2020
PENCE/TRUMP 2024
4 years ago
Saudi Arabia is a great place for them to wear their oppressed women clothing. Planes leave daily…
4 years ago
The law in France does not yet include a ban on women wearing headscarves while on school trips, but many in France think it would be a good, if incremental, step.
Many outside of France would think it is a great incremental but not far enough step too.
4 years ago
In an attempt to ” cut to the chase ” here, perhaps the debate in France could be simplified this way.
Does the republic wish that headscarves be worn by young muslim girls {under 9 } so they may be identified by muslim males as part of the ummah and not be subjected to sexual molestation by them, likewise girls and women over 9 so that they may not be subjected to either rape or acid attack by male members of the faithful but others not so attired can and will be.
By making this distinction based upon items of orthodox religious clothing, predatory muslim males are proven to direct their unwelcome activities, with the connivance of the French state it seems, to all other non muslim young girls and women in France placing them at greater risk of religiously mandated sexual violence or terrorism.
If a muslim male with frustrated lust cannot differentiate between females, muslim and non muslim, children or not, the chances are all will be better protected by what’s known as “herd immunity” based upon a secular similarity in dress and appearance.
4 years ago
Reply to
Poppey
Great “cut to the chase” and all that one might note is that islam is not a religion, it is at best a doctrine.
Or as I prefer to say:
Islam is a political program to take over the whole world and set everybody in it under the sharia doctrine while the program disguises* itself as” the religion of peace,” the exact opposite of what it actually is.
* through use of taqyyia, lies moslems are supposed to tell in order to promote islam
4 years ago
rabid muslim pigs
4 years ago
Reply to
Roma Mikhasev
ALLAH OF THE QURAN IS A FALSE NON-EXISTENT IDOL GOD-END OF STORY!! And the Lord God shall punish ALL islam at his coming in due course!!
4 years ago
My apologies, every time I see a Muslima with her hijab, I`m reminded of how much she looks like.ET the lost space alien.
4 years ago
THE ISLAMICS ARE SO OFFENDED WHEN FOLKS WEAR CROSSES OR STARS OF DAVID! IF IT WAS A CHRISTIAN WOMAN WEARING A CROSS OR A JEWISH WOMAN WEARING A STAR OF DAVID NECKLACE AND THE ISLAMIC WAS COMPLAINING, HOW DO WE THINK THAT WOULD HAVE GONE? BET THE WOMAN OFFENDING THE MUSLIM WOULD HAVE BEEN BANNED FROM THE TRIP! THE DOUBLE STANDARD IS THE PROBLEM AND NON RECOGNITION OF REALITY BY THE FRENCH RULING PARTY!
IT IS IRONIC BUT ALMOST APPROPRIATE THAT THE CORRUPT FRENCH REPUBLIC THAT WAS FOUNDED ON THE GUILLOTINE WILL BE UNDONE BY ITS POLITICAL SUPPORTERS’ REFUSAL TO STAND UP TO ISLAMICS WEARING HEAD DRESSES! FRANCE HAD ITS CHANCE TO ELECT MARINE LE PEN BUT I NOW THINK IT IS GOING TO FALL! BELGIUM COULD FULFILL ITS DESTINY AS THE ORIGINAL TRIBE OF THE FRENCH NATIONALITY IF IT COULD GET OUT FROM UNDER THE EU WHICH SUPPORTS ISLAMIC PENETRATION OF EUROPEAN SOCIETY BUT IT IS TOO BEHOLDING TO THE GEORGE SOROS-IAN GLOBALIST BANKING CLIQUE!
4 years ago
If she won’t remove it……………..
4 years ago
The problem with the head scarves has nothing to do with the actual scarves; the problem is that muslims are allowed into the society of that nation. Any nation that welcomes or just tolerates muslims is asking for friction, violence, and eventually, genecide.
The root of the probelm is so simple that few statesmen care to engage with it. The root is the collection of all the religious and political writings in the Islamic world. No respect is shown by Islam for anybody or any ideas that are not specifically Islamic. Hatred and violence are openly
taught and demanded by the authorities of Islam.
Why would any rational person expect anything good to come from Islam?
Answer, only people who have never read the Koran and other Islamic texts would expect any decency from muslims. Those who have done the reading know better.
4 years ago
Reply to
Richard Canary
Its called educate yourself it is IMPAIRITIVE to do it ASAP as time is of the essence in this matter when we are standing still we are falling backwards which in this case can lead to disaster !
4 years ago
The answer is simple: If the people of France want to ban the hijab, it will not happen. Only if the elites have a reason to ban it will it happen. Screw the citizens.
4 years ago
We could have a good first step by prohibiting all of the moslem, muslim, islamic belief people of voting in any Western Civilized nation. Take away the politicians love of their block voting. They are addicted to it like a drug.
