French government issues law banning headscarves in public schools

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, March 18, 2004

French government issues law banning headscarves in public schools

The French government issued in its gazette on Wednesday the controversial law banning obvious religious symbols in public schools.

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The French government issued in its gazette on Wednesday the controversial law banning obvious religious symbols in public schools.

The law bill was first voted through by the National Assembly (French lower house) on Feb. 10 and finally approved by the Senate on March 3 and then got promulgated on March 15.

The law bans conspicuous religious symbols, such as headscarves, Jewish skullcaps, large Christian crosses and even beards and bandanas if they are of religious nature.

The legislation of the law bill has been sharply protested after it was raised. Many marches were organized in Paris and in cities across the Arab world to try to resist its approval, seen as a form of discrimination and anti-Muslim.

In February, a voice, diffused by the Dubai-based Arabic channel Al-Arabiya, from a certain Al-Zawahri, an Egyptian-born physician thought to be with Osama bin Laden, criticized the legislation: "The decision of the French president to issue a law to prevent Muslim girls from covering their heads in schools is another example of the Crusader's malice, which Westerners have against Muslims."

A threatening letter was sent Tuesday to French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and several newspapers, warning of a possibleattack from a radical Islamic group.

The group named itself as the "Servants of Allah the Powerful and Wise" said the approval of the headscarf law makes France an "enemy of Islam," a French Justice Ministry statement unveiled Tuesday.

"With this headscarf law, you have participated in an unjust aggression ... You have decided on your own to put yourself on the list of Islam's worst enemies," says the letter signed by "Commando Movsar Barayev," according to the statement.

The letter threatened France and its overseas interests and called on Muslims to avoid crowded places, without specifying what the threats will be.

French President Jacques Chirac called for higher vigilance on Wednesday in the wake of the letter, while Raffarin urged French to be calm, saying the government has no plan to further increase the current alert level at red, following March 11 Madrid attacks which killed 201 people and wounded at least 1,500 others.

French police acknowledged that the identification of the letter is difficult since the group was previously unknown to intelligence services.

Source: Xinhua

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