The Muslim News

PARIS (Reuters) - The head of France's Muslim council has urged the country's Muslims to ignore the "siren" calls of Islamic radicals and refuse to join protest marches against government plans to ban headscarves in public schools.

Dalil Boubakeur, chairman of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), branded a pro-veil march set for next week as a "very dangerous" measure that could frighten voters two months before regional elections are held across France.

Boubakeur, a moderate close to President Jacques Chirac, was reacting to growing resentment among Muslim groups that feel unfairly targeted by Chirac's plan to ban all religious symbols in public schools and hospitals.

The CFCM, launched last year to represent the diverse groups among France's five million Muslims, has split over the veil decision. One of its largest member groups has come out in favour of protest marches set for at least four large cities.

"I'm not going out on the streets to demonstrate on January 17 and I don't advise my brothers to frighten citizens two months before the regional elections," Boubakeur said.

"Demonstrations in the name of religion are very dangerous," he told the daily Le Parisien on Wednesday. "I ask everyone to be wary of the sirens of political Islam."

MUSLIMS FEEL TARGETED

One of the CFCM's main groups, the activist Union of French Islamic Organisations (UOIF), has called on all Muslims to protest against a law that most mainstream politicians support as a bulwark against growing radical influence among Muslims.

The first pro-veil march in Paris last month rallied over 3,000 protesters, many of them veiled young women.

UOIF President Lhaj Thami Breze said the new law, which would ban Jewish scullcaps and large Christian crosses along with Muslim veils, was clearly aimed mostly at Muslims. There are few skullcaps or large crosses seen in public schools.

"It's not the Catholics or Jews who are singled out, it's the Muslims," he told the daily Metro. "This is the way the Muslim community sees it."

Breze rejected arguments by supporters of the anti-veil law that a few schoolgirls with covered heads represented a threat to France's tradition of strict separation of church and state.

"They girls who wear it love France," he said.

"We have to support them so they don't get shut out and have to continue their studies in private schools. We know our Catholic brothers are very tolerant and accept veiled girls."

The UOIF published a fatwa (edict) by a council of European Islamic scholars that said: "Forcing a Muslim woman to take off her veil, which expresses her religious conscience and free choice, is considered the worst oppression a woman can suffer."

Chirac's centre-right government wants to rush the anti-veil law through parliament so debate starts before the regional elections and the ban is effective in September.
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