Paris, France – On October 2 final yr, French President Emmanuel Macron introduced a legislation in opposition to what he known as “Islamist separatism” geared toward tackling “radical” actions within the nation.
He described Islam as a faith “in disaster” globally, as he sought to spice up assist for measures supposed to control how the religion is practised in France.
Critics say the proposed legislation additional stigmatises France’s 5.7 million-strong Muslim group – not solely these people it supposedly targets – and types a part of a wider crackdown on civil liberties.
On February 4, the French decrease home backed the invoice. An anticipated vote by parliamentarians is predicted to happen subsequent week.
The Nationwide Meeting is now sorting by way of 1,860 proposed amendments to the controversial invoice, together with an extension of the hijab ban on college college students and a ban on non secular symbols worn by mother and father on faculty journeys.
The laws, formally named the draft invoice on “Respect for the Ideas of the Republic”, has been the topic of fierce debate in civil society and amongst politicians.
“I don’t see how it will assist to cease the terrorism,” stated Ouadie Elhamamouchi, a lawyer for the Collective Towards Islamophobia in France (CCIF) civil rights group.
“This legislation above all has a political somewhat than authorized motive. It’s stigmatising Muslims.”
CCIF itself was compelled to relocate after the French authorities accused the group of harbouring “radical” hyperlinks and ordered its closure in the course of the crackdown on suspected “separatism”. Rights teams condemned the transfer in opposition to CCIF, saying it added to a local weather of Islamophobia.
If the legislation is handed, in line with Elhamamouchi, the federal government shall be legitimising the xenophobic arguments made by France’s resurgent far-right teams.
“It would fire up the fitting,” he stated. “We can have crossed a line, and it is going to be an assault on public freedom. It’s merely unjust. The legislation has set a really worrying discourse and French Muslims will undergo.”
‘Macron’s gamble’
Measures agreed for the separatism legislation to this point embody sanctions for on-line hate speech, tighter controls on homeschooling, limits on donations to spiritual teams from overseas, and a requirement for all associations in France receiving public funding to signal a contract pledging to respect Republican values.
The latter, which can enable associations to be abolished extra simply, was opposed by France’s League of Human Rights.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, head of the left-wing La France Insoumise get together, raised his considerations in the course of the opening debates on the separatism legislation.
“We don’t construct France in opposition to those that compose it,” he stated. “This textual content is ineffective, it’s harmful.”
French political analysts stated the federal government’s efforts to shortly push by way of the invoice in the midst of the pandemic had been made with an eye fixed on subsequent yr’s presidential elections.
“That is Macron’s gamble,” stated Philippe Marliere, a professor of political science at the UK’s College School London. “To give attention to the type of points – the so-called terrorist risk posed by extremists – Macron is of the view that it will ship a message to the general public that it’s going to curb the affect of the far proper.”
The specter of the far proper was highlighted final month when a ballot by French newspaper Le Parisien put Nationwide Rally chief Marine Le Pen and Macron virtually neck and neck within the recognition stakes, at 48 % and 52 % respectively.
Marliere stated that echoing the far proper’s nationalist rhetoric may embolden the Islamophobic tendencies of activist teams like Technology Identification, an anti-immigrant motion identified to patrol France’s borders.
“It’s a really harmful recreation he’s taking part in,” Marliere stated. “It would solely strengthen Le Pen and legitimise her concepts. Historical past reveals if you happen to associate with the far proper, the one get together that advantages is the far proper.”
‘Muslims are being focused’
The modifications are additionally seen by critics as a part of a wider shift in authorities coverage to crack down on social freedoms, together with latest efforts to ban the filming of police with the World Safety Invoice.
France was downgraded this month from a “full democracy” to a “flawed democracy” in The Economist’s World Democracy Index.
“Opposite to what the federal government says it’s not [about] to strengthen the 1905 legislation on secularism,” stated Sarah Mazouz, a researcher on the Nationwide Heart for Scientific Analysis and creator of the e book, Race. “However it’s [going] to introduce tougher controls on much more domains of society.”
The liberty of the press has been threatened, stated Mazouz, and there have been makes an attempt to limit college analysis as a result of supposed “Islamo-gauchism” on campuses – a derogatory time period coined by France’s proper wing in reference to the alleged political alliance between leftists and hardline Muslims.
“Clearly, Muslims are being focused with this legislation,” Mazouz stated. “It’s resulting in a blurring between Islam and radical Islamism, between Muslims and violent Islamists. It’s reactivating the nervousness over French Muslims.”
On the time of publishing, France’s inside ministry had not responded to Al Jazeera’s request for remark.
The separatism legislation, which accommodates about 50 articles, is on the identical time seen by consultants as a considerable transformation of France’s secularist precept of laicite, which was first legally established in 1901 after which in relation to spiritual affiliation in 1905.
“It’s modified the French system of laicite,” stated Philippe Portier, a historian and sociologist of secularism at Sciences Po College Paris. “Right this moment it’s been substituted and it’s a radical transformation.”
Portier stated that the unique secularist legislation established in 1905 was supposed to make sure freedom of faith for people, however that these new proposals are not in keeping with that idea.
“Actually, the unique regime of laicite was certainly one of liberty, however it has grow to be a regime of management,” he stated.
Portier defined that underneath this legislation, for instance, if you happen to work for a personal bus firm that may serve the Olympic Video games to be held in France in 2024, it’s essential to signal a contract to respect French Republican values as a result of it’s linked to the state.
“This merely didn’t exist earlier than,” he stated. “It’s very regarding.”