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Latest update: 19/02/2011
- France - Islam - Nicolas Sarkozy
Sarkozy sets sights on defining role of Islam in a secular France
Following last year’s controversial ban on the full Islamic veil in public places, French President Nicolas Sarkozy now wants to formalise the relationship between Islam and France's fiercely secular state.
By Tony Todd (text)
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has set his sights on the role of Islam in a secular France, which looks set to become a major theme ahead of the 2012 presidential elections.
Sarkozy said Tuesday that he wants to launch a debate in April on the role and influence of the country’s second-biggest religion.
The call for a discussion on Islam follows comments Sarkozy made last week that “multiculturalism is not working” and is seen as a bid to win back voters from the far-right National Front party.
“There is a growing gulf between the media portrayal of Islam and the preoccupations of the French people,” Sarkozy told members of his conservative Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party at a dinner he hosted this week.
And while it remains unclear whether the president would look to encode the debate’s findings in a new law, one unnamed UMP lawmaker told right-wing daily Le Figaro, “The role of Islam in France is going to be a central issue in the 2012 presidential campaign.”
‘This is a secular country’
Sarkozy told his UMP dinner guests that a refusal to address Islam’s role would lead France down the wrong path. “In the 1980s we were careless about immigration because it was a taboo subject – and now we are paying the price for it,” Sarkozy told the party members dining at the Elysée presidential palace. “The same thing is happening with Islam in France right now.”
“It is out of the question that French society should be influenced by Islam,” he continued. “This is a secular country.”
Sarkozy went on to set a deadline for a final decision on what role religion should play in France: “We need to formalise our position on the role of religions in France once and for all, and I want this to be achieved in 2011.”
Religion and the law
Secularism in France, a country with Catholic roots but a deep-rooted suspicion of religion, has been enforced by law for over a century.
“The Republic does not officially recognise, pay salaries for, nor subsidise any religion,” states a December 1905 law on the separation between church and state.
The law adds: “It is henceforth forbidden to erect or display any religious signs or emblems publicly, and political meetings may not take place in places of worship.”
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The law also bans religious processions but does not address prayer meetings in the city streets (some mosques in France have overcrowding issues, thus leading to an overspill into the streets), which is a particular bugbear of the National Front.
“We need to have a debate on prayer meetings in the streets,” Sarkozy told his UMP party faithful, echoing the concerns of the far right. “In a secular country, we cannot tolerate having a public call to prayer.”
Speaking at a rally in Lyon in December, National Front leader Marine Le Pen went even further, comparing prayers in the street to the World War II Nazi “occupation”.
“There are of course no tanks, there are no soldiers, but it is nevertheless an occupation, and it weighs heavily on local residents,” she said.
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Comments (8)
Sarkozy initiates an outmost important debate
This issue should be on the agenda in all of the European countries. Islam is not only a religion, it is also a political ideology that disapprove democracy. Islam is incongruous with the fundamental values that constitutes the foundation of our secular, democratic societies. Islam should be treated as any totalitarian political movement that opposes the liberal human rights.
These debates are not leading
These debates are not leading anywhere, except that it s deepening racisim in France. There is no professionalism in bringing this issue into the 2012 presidential campaign.
It s also important to note that Islam is less and less related to immigrants since many muslims in France are French.
I think Europe is too
I think Europe is too tolerant with Islam. The muslims should be prepared to give up Islam if they want to stay and live in Europe else no long stay visa or resident permit should be given to them cos they threaten the security of the society.
countless frenchmen died for your great nation, DEFEND IT!
Do you hear the people sing? Singing the song of angry men. It is the music of a people who will NOT be slaves again. When the beating of your heart, echoes the beating of the drums, there is a life about to start when tomorow comes! LONG LIVE SECULAR FRANCE.
S.O.S from Sweden...
Sarkozy should explain some things about multiculture to the Swedish gouverment and the Swedish prime minister Fredrik reinfeldt in particular in the next EU meeting.
Swedish crime rates are skyrocketing, the schoolsystem, social security, unemployment etc are free falling.
According to the Swedish government it's all because the intolerans and racist views of the Swedish people wich of course are totally wrong.
We just like the French people in France just want to keep our contry secular and democratic.
HH M. Sarcozy debat Islam role in France
If I am invited I will be there.
I am 67 years old.
Si on m'invite je vais etre la. Je suis 67 ans d'age.
Bravo
Bravo President Sarkozy, Bravo!
Sarkozy sets sights on role of Islam in secular France
The secular elements of France came under fire by Constantinople and the Vatican in the late 19th century. One has to trace when Islam came into the country and under what conditions. post WWII saw a mass influx of Islam behind this tolerance of immigration. Both Catholicism and Islam were born in Constantinople Turkey, Istanbul. Constantinople set out to attack France in this letter from the Pope:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testem_Benevolentiae_Nostrae
This was an outright war on France by the Pope, ie, Constantinople, and Mussolini's attack with Italy. The secular nature of France should ground itself in proper understanding of Roman law and its being outlawed in the Papal Bull of 1356. Byzantine's attack on Pax Romana. France and Austria should certainly take another look at its relationship to the Italian state.
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