French: Muslim headscarves in state schools have become a political challenge to France's fundamental values of openness and tolerance and so must be banned from state classrooms, the Prime Minister, Mr Jean-Pierre Raffarin, said yesterday.
Introducing a controversial bill to ban religious symbols from public schools, Mr Raffarin told the National Assembly that groups challenging the freedom and equality of French society must not agitate in classrooms meant to integrate all citizens.
The Prime Minister opened four days of debate on the law aimed to stop growing Islamist influence in schools but worded to bar Muslim headscarves, Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses.
The ban has angered Muslims in France and baffled observers abroad. Religious leaders in France have criticised it.
"Certain religious signs, among them the Islamic veil, are multiplying in our schools. They are taking on a political meaning," Mr Raffarin said. "Some want to know how far they can go. We are giving them a response today."
He rejected arguments from observant Muslims and Jews that head coverings were required by their religions and the ban would violate their freedom of belief. "Religion cannot be a political project," he declared.
He said the government would soon submit a law on ensuring secularism in public hospitals, where some Muslims refuse treatment by doctors of the opposite sex. It would also step up its efforts to fight against job and sex discrimination. - (Reuters)