PARIS (AP) – Parliamentarians on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a bill that would strengthen the supervision of mosques, schools and sports clubs to protect France from radical Islamists and ensure respect for French values - one of President Emmanuel Macron’s benchmarks.
The vote in the lower house was the first critical obstacle to the long-running legislation after two weeks of intense debate. The bill went from 347 to 151 with 65 abstentions.
The large-scale bill covering most aspects of French life has been strongly challenged by some Muslims, parliamentarians and others who fear the state is entering essential freedoms and pointing the finger at Islam, religion no. 2 of the nation. But he blew through a room in which Macron’s centrist party has a majority.
The legislation gained additional urgency after a teacher was beheaded in October, followed by a deadly attack on a basilica in Nice. The draft law known as art. 18 is known as the “Paty Law”, named after Samuel Paty, the teacher beheaded outside his school west of Paris. The legislation makes a crime endanger a person’s life, providing details about his life and private location. Paty was killed after information about his school was posted in a video.
The bill supports other French efforts to combat extremism, mainly based on security.
Detractors say the measures are already covered by current laws and raise suspicions that the bill has a hidden agenda by a government trying to lure right-wing voters ahead of next year’s presidential election.
Just days before Tuesday’s vote, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, the bill’s main sponsor, accused far-right leader Marine le Pen during a nationally televised debate that he was “soft” on radical Islam and that he needs to take vitamins.
The remark meant emphasizing that the ruling party is tougher than the far right in tackling radical Islamists. But Le Pen criticized the bill as too weak and offered what she called her tougher counter-proposal. Le Pen, who ran for the 2022 election, lost in the second round of 2017 to Macron.
The bill – which mentions neither Muslims nor Islam by name – is backed by those who see the need to contain what the government says is invasive fundamentalism that subverts French values, especially the nation’s fundamental value of secularism and secularism. gender equality.
The planned law “upholding the principles of the Republic” is called the “separatism” bill, a term used by Macron to refer to radicals who would create a “counter-society” in France.
Top representatives of all religions were consulted as the text was written. The government’s main Muslim leadership, the French Council for the Muslim Faith, has backed its support.
Ghaleb Bencheikh, head of the Foundation for Islam in France, a secular body seeking progressive Islam, said in a recent interview that the planned law is “unfair but necessary” to combat radicalization.
Among other things, the 51-article bill would ban certificates of virginity and prevent polygamy and forced marriage, practices that are not formally attached to a religion. Critics say these provisions are already covered by existing laws.
Among the key measures is to ensure that children attend regular school from the age of three, a way to target home schools where ideology is taught. Other measures include training all civil servants in secularism. Anyone who threatens a public employee risks a prison sentence. In another reference to Paty, the murdered teacher, the bill obliges the bosses of a public employee who has been threatened to take action if the employee agrees.
The bill introduces mechanisms to ensure that mosques and the associations that run them are not under the influence of foreign interests or domestic Salafists, with a rigorous interpretation of Islam.
Associations must sign a letter of respect for French values and reimburse state funds if they exceed the limit.
To adapt the changes, the bill adjusts the 1905 law of France, which guarantees the separation of the state church.
Some Muslims said he felt a climate of suspicion.
“There is confusion … A Muslim is a Muslim and that’s it,” said Bahri Ayari, a taxi driver, after worshiping the midday prayers at the Grand Mosque in Paris. “We are talking about radicals, I don’t know what. A Muslim is a Muslim and that’s it. “As for the condemned radicals,” he said, “their crimes” are on the back of Islam. This is not a Muslim. ”
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Jeffrey Schaeffer of Paris contributed to this report.