The State Department voiced misgivings Thursday about French President Jacques Chirac’s plan to bar the wearing of Islamic headscarves, Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses in French state schools.
“(A) fundamental principle of religious freedom that we work for in many countries of the world, including on this very issue of headscarves, is that all persons should be able to practice their religion and their beliefs peacefully without government interference as long as they are doing so without provocation and intimidation of others in the society,” the U.S. ambassador for international religious freedom said.
“President Chirac is concerned to maintain France’s principle of secularism and he wants that, as I think he said, not to be negotiable. Our hope is religious freedom would be a nonnegotiable as well,” ambassador John Hanford told reporters when asked about the issue as he presented the State Department’s annual report on religious freedom.
“One Muslim leader said this is a secularism that excludes too much. We are very concerned that that not be the case,” he added. “So we are going to watch this carefully and (it is) certainly an important concern.”
Integration issues
Chirac called on Wednesday for a law banning Islamic headscarves and other religious symbols in state schools, despite protests from Muslims in France and across the world.
The French president said such defiance breached the landmark separation of church and state in 1905 and would heighten tensions in France’s multicultural society, whose Muslim and Jewish populations are both the biggest of their kind in west Europe.
In a televised speech after months of debate on the role of religion in French society which highlighted the difficulties of Muslim integration, Chirac urged parliament to pass the law before the next school year starts in September.
The ban will extend to other religious symbols including Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses, but France’s top Muslim representative said it mainly targeted Islam and would further alienate the country’s five million Muslims.
