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December 19, 2003/Kislev 24 5764, Vol. 56, No. 13
French schools debate religious symbols
PHILIP CARMEL
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
PARIS - Most children in France are likely to get an extra school holiday come next October - and it could be Yom Kippur.
On Oct. 6, 2004, the 10th of Tishri, 5765, every child who studies in a state school could get the day off for the holiest Jewish day of the year.
A proposal to make Yom Kippur, together with the Muslim Festival of the Sacrifice, Eid al-Adhar, na-tional school holidays is just one of a series of radical recommendations contained in the final report of a presi-dential commission set up to examine how the secular values that lie at the heart of the French Republic can be adapted to a multicultural society.
The creation earlier this year of the Stasi Commission by President Jacques Chirac principally was an admission that previous laws and norms were no longer applicable in a society with a wide ethnic mix.
More specifically, however, it was a recognition that France now has to deal with a large Muslim community whose acceptance of the secular values of the French state is creating controversy.
Most recently, the conflict has resulted in a number of expulsions and suspensions of young Muslim women for attending state schools wearing Muslim head or face scarves.
Traditionally, French law has been vague on many of the issues not under scrutiny.
When it comes to wearing religious insignia in public schools, for example, school principals have had discretion up to now to decide what constitutes "an ostentatious religious sign" and can be banned from the school.
But as Muslims increasingly have been associated with Islamic extremism and urban violence in France, calls have been growing for banning Muslim head coverings in public institutions in the country.
And as the legislation is framed to apply equally to all of France's citizens, politicians from across the spectrum have called for a ban on all religious insignias in schools.
Most French Jewish leaders support the legislation and have long accepted the principle that if the scarf must go, yarmulkes should go, too. Community leaders largely welcomed the Stasi Com-mission's recommendations Dec. 11.
In its report, the commission said it favored a ban on all symbols that "manifested religious or political affiliation," including "visible religious signs such as the large cross, Muslim scarf and the kipah."
However, the report said, the ban should not include things like "pendants, little crosses, stars of David, hands of Fatima or little Korans."
Yonatan Arfi, president of the French Union of Jewish Students, a body which has long campaigned for a total ban on religious signs, said he opposes making Yom Kippur a national holiday for students.
"This is not a good idea when more than half of the schools in France don't have any Jews in them," Arfi said.
France's chief rabbi, Joseph Sitruk, who is Orthodox, said he opposes legislation to ban the Muslim scarf, "which, I fear, could lead to a ban on all religious signs."
JTA News Editor Uriel Heilman in New York contributed to this report.
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