French President Emmanuel Macron intends to push for tougher laws to fight Islamic separatism and to protect the principles of a secular society. The president believes there is a danger that the six million-strong Muslim minority will create its own “counter-society” in France. He proposes, among other measures, stricter control of school curricula and foreign funding for French mosques, Reuters reports.
Last year, Sihame Denguir enrolled her teenage son and daughter in France’s largest Muslim public school in the northern city of Lille, about 200 kilometres (125 miles) from their middle-class suburban Paris home.
The move meant financial sacrifice. Denguir, 41, now pays tuition at the partially state-subsidised Averroes school and rents a flat in Lille for her children and their grandmother, who has moved in to care for them. But the academic performance of Averroes, one of the best in France, appealed to her.
So she was stunned when, in December, the school lost its state funding of about two million euros a year on the grounds that it did not conform to the secular principles enshrined in France’s national education rules. Denguir told Reuters in a park near her home in Cergy, calling Averroes open-minded:
“The high school has done so well. It should be valued. It should be held up as an example.”
Macron’s struggle
President Emmanuel Macron has launched a fight against what he calls Islamic separatism and radical Islam in France after deadly jihadist attacks in recent years by foreign and homegrown militants. Macron is under pressure from the far-right Rassemblement Nationale (Rassemblement Nationale), which has a significant lead over his party ahead of this week’s European elections.
The crackdown is aimed at limiting foreign influence on Muslim institutions in France and fighting a long-term Islamist plan to seize control of the French Republic that Macron says is underway.
Macron denies stigmatising Muslims and says Islam has a place in French society. But human rights activists and Muslim groups say that by targeting schools like Averroes, the government is infringing on religious freedom by making it harder for Muslims to express their identity.
Parents are against
Parents and academics interviewed by Reuters said the campaign could be counterproductive and alienate Muslims who want their children to succeed in the French system, including high-performing comprehensive schools such as Averroes.
Thomas Misita, a 42-year-old father of three daughters who attends Averroes, said he was taught at school that France’s principles included equality, fraternity and freedom of religion. He said:
“I feel betrayed singled out, smeared, slandered. I feel 100% French, but it creates a divide. A small divide with your own country.”
The school’s long-term survival is now in question.
Despite raising about 1 million euros in donations from individuals, enrolment for next year has dropped to 500 pupils from 800, the school’s director, Eric Dufour, told Reuters in May.
Macron’s office sent a request for comment to the interior ministry, which did not respond. The education ministry said it did not distinguish between schools of different faiths in applying the law. The ministry said that despite its academic success, Averroes has shortcomings, citing “administrative and budgetary management” and a lack of transparency.
The school is waging a legal battle to overturn that decision.
Principal Eric Dufour told Reuters that the school had provided the state with “all guarantees” to show it was complying with funding conditions and French values. He also said:
“We are the most inspected school in France.”
The government is closing schools
Local branches of the country’s government have closed at least five Muslim schools since Macron came to power in 2017, according to a Reuters count. Under his predecessors, Reuters was only able to find one closed Muslim school.
In the first year of Macron’s presidency, another school lost state funding promised in May 2017 by the government of former President Francois Hollande.
Only one Muslim school has received state funding since 2017, compared to nine under Macron’s two predecessors, Education Ministry figures show. The National Federation for Muslim Education (FNEM) told Reuters that it had submitted around 70 applications on behalf of Muslim schools during this period.
Reuters spoke to more than a dozen current and former principals and teachers at the ten Muslim schools, who said their schools were subjected to harassment, including censure on frivolous grounds, and that alleged discrimination prevented them from integrating more closely into the state system. American anthropologist Carol Ferrera, who studies French faith schools and says Catholic and Jewish schools are treated more leniently, claimed:
“It’s really a double standard of who has to conform to secular Republican values in a certain way, and who doesn’t.”
Prominent Parisian Catholic school Stanislas has retained its funding despite inspectors finding problems at the school last year, including sexist and homophobic ideas and compulsory religious lessons, French media reported.
The Education Ministry said that under Macron, the government had increased oversight of public schools, leading to their closure, including some non-denominational schools. The ministry cited budgetary constraints as the reason for the small number of schools being offered state funding.
Creating a tolerant learning environment
While some of the five closed Muslim schools teach conservative versions of Islam, according to education ministry statements and closure orders, principals and teachers interviewed by Reuters emphasised that their schools try to create a tolerant learning environment. Mahmoud Awad, board member at Education & Savoir, the school that lost state funding soon after Macron took office, said:
“There was never a desire for separatism. At some point they have to accept that a Muslim school is like a Catholic school or a Jewish school.”
Idir Arap, the principal of Avicenne secondary school in Nice, told Reuters he has unsuccessfully sought state funding from 2020 because he wants the school to be taken over by the state. The latest request was rejected in February, according to a document reviewed by Reuters. Arap also said:
“We’re the opposite of radicalism.”
In February, Education Minister Nicole Belloubet said she wanted to close the Avicenne school, citing “non-transparent funding” discovered by a local government representative. In April, an administrative court provisionally found the violations to be minor and suspended the order to close the school. The next hearing is scheduled for 25 June.
In its response to Reuters, the ministry confirmed that financial impropriety at Avicenne was widespread and said it was awaiting the court’s final decision. It said the school could appeal the denial of funding.
Religious traditions in French schools
France has a tradition of Catholic, Protestant and Jewish schools that allow religious expression within a framework of secular principles that generally exclude religion from public life.
The banning of hijab headscarves in public schools in 2004 created a demand for schools where Muslim pupils, particularly girls, could express religious identity.
In 2008, Averroes received state funding in exchange for oversight, a move by former President Nicolas Sarkozy to better integrate Muslim institutions.
According to France’s statistics agency, there are about 6.8 million Muslims in France, about 10 per cent of the population. Islam is the second largest religion in the country after Catholicism.
Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, the leader of the party Debout la France (France Arise), has called for a crackdown on radical Islamism in France on X:
“Thousands of immigrant French are under unbearable pressure from Salafists. Radical Islamism is on the rise in France, with 23% of Muslims calling for full or partial implementation of Sharia law! Let’s fight these extremists together. The state must be uncompromising in defence of our values.”
Meanwhile, in Russia, against the background of external threats, the wearing of the niqab is also being discussed at the highest level. Opponents of wearing the niqab argue that it is an Arab element that historically has nothing to do with the Muslim peoples of Russia and Asia.
