WPR, Cont'd

okay, one more WPR post (i'm smitten, its true).....here is a french view of the 'scarf debate' that it seen as either the solution to (or, according to some, the source of some) ethnic conflict in France: its secularism vs. fundamentalism. here we go...

Defending 'Republican Values'

Djénane Kareh Tager, Le Monde des Religions (bimonthly magazine), Paris, France, January-February 2004

Is the French Republic burning? The question does not seem utterly frivolous if you look at the amount of energy that’s being expended to save “republican values,” starting with the principle of secularism.

“In the past, when we said ‘secularism’ people called us dorks. But all of a sudden, not a day goes by without people talking about it,” says Jean-Louis Biot, general secretary of the National Secular Action Committee (CNAL), an institution created in 1953 to support public education and that, ever since, has been on the front lines of battles on behalf of secularism in the schools and beyond.

In the last few months, there’s been a bumper crop of official commissions tasked with proposing ways and means to shore up secularist values. In the National Assembly, an information-gathering commission under veteran politician Jean-Louis Debré studied the “question of religious symbols in the schools.” The commission’s report came down categorically: The “reaffirmation of the principle of secularism must take the form of legislative action explicitly to ban the visible wearing of any sign of religious or political allegiance on school property,” both public schools and private schools operating under contract with the National Education system.

At the same time, at the behest of President Jacques Chirac, Bernard Stasi—who holds the post of “mediator of the Republic,” a kind of national ombudsman—and 19 prominent citizens studied “the application of the principle of secularism within the Republic.” This body’s mission was to discuss the question: Is a law to protect secularism necessary?

As the weeks went by, French society found itself split into three camps: the “pro-law,” the “anti-law,” and the undecided majority, torn between conflicting, often persuasive arguments from political parties, labor unions, nonprofit organizations, people involved in the day-to-day management of the issue, or experts in secularism.

On the Internet, sites about secularism have experienced record-breaking traffic. “We’ve recorded peaks of 10,000 hits per day,” says an astonished Serge Farnel, general secretary of www.laic.info. [“Laïc” is the French word for “secular.”] This site, which went online on July 14, 2003, France’s Independence Day—to stress its strong symbolic value—aims to educate the average citizen about the various elements of the debate in all their complexity. “Discussions are fine. But if somebody doesn’t understand the real issues, he or she can be easily manipulated,” says Farnel, who is firm on one point: “There are areas where the foundations of secularism have been shaken. Perhaps the house isn’t on fire, but it would be risky to go to sleep right now.” The hottest area, the one that has elicited the vast majority of public expressions at all levels, is certainly the wearing of the veil—in the public service, in the Republic’s schools, and even in hospitals. Could it be that this piece of cloth, all by itself, threatens a century of secularism in France?

“I’m a teacher, I’m French, I’m of Moroccan origin, and I’ve found some of my colleagues consider me out of place as a defender of secularism and equality of men and women in the schools,” recounts Faïza Alami, assistant principal at the Stendhal Middle School in Besançon. “It’s just this background that makes me particularly sensitive to the issue of secularism, one of the most precious principles, which is at the heart of France’s universalist message,” she says.