PARIS (AP) – French lawmakers’s House of Representatives on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a bill that would strengthen oversight of mosques, schools and sports clubs to protect France from radical Islamists and promote respect for French values - one of President Emmanuel Macron’s landmark projects. .
After two weeks of intense debate, the vote in the National Assembly House was the first critical obstacle to the legislation that was long in the making. The bill passed 347-151, with 65 abstentions.
As France has been bloodied by terrorist attacks, with hundreds of civilians going to Syria in recent years and thousands of French troops now fighting extremists in Mali, few agree that radicalization is a danger. But critics also see the proposed law as a political ploy to lure the right wing to Macron’s centrist party ahead of next year’s presidential election.
The comprehensive bill, entitled “Supporting Respect for the Principles of the Republic”, covers most aspects of French life. It is hotly contested by some Muslims, legislators and others who fear that the state is infringing on essential freedoms and pointing a finger at Islam, the country’s no. 2 religion.
But the legislation broke through a chamber in which Macron’s party has a majority. It is not planned to go to the Conservative-controlled Senate until March 30, but the final section is considered anything but assured.
The bill received extra urgency after a teacher was beheaded outside Paris in October and three people were killed during a knife attack in a Basilica of Nice in the same month.
A section that makes it a crime to consciously endanger a person’s life by giving details about their private life and location is known as the ‘Paty Act. ‘It is named after Samuel Paty, the teacher who was killed outside his school after information about where he teaches was posted online in a video.
The bill reinforces other French efforts to combat extremism, mainly in the security-based field.
Dissatisfied people believe that the measures are already covered in current laws. Some voice suspicions about a hidden political agenda.
Days before the vote on Tuesday, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin – the main sponsor of the bill, accused far – right leader Marine Le Pen during a national television debate of being ‘soft’ on radical Islam and said she should take vitamins.
The remark was intended to portray the government as tougher than the right wing in tackling Islamic extremists. But Le Pen criticized the bill as too weak and presented what she calls her own, stricter counter-proposal. Le Pen, who declared her presidential candidacy for the 2022 election, lost to Macron in late 2017.
Jordan Bardella, vice president of Le Pen’s National Rally party. said on BFM TV the legislation passed on Tuesday “misses its target” because it does not embrace radical Islamist ideology.
The bill does not mention Muslims or Islam by name. Supporters say it aims to find out what the government describes as an intrusive fundamentalism that undermines French values, especially the country’s fundamental value of secularism and gender equality.
The measure is called the bill “separatism”, a term used by Macron to refer to radical people who would create a “counter-union” in France.
The best representatives of all religions were consulted while the text was being drafted. The leadership of the government’s leading Muslim, the French Council for the Muslim Faith, gave its support.
Ghaleb Bencheikh, head of the Foundation for Islam of France, a secular body that wants a progressive Islam, said in a recent interview that the planned law is “unfair but necessary” to fight radicalization.
The bill would ban, among other things, provisions for virginity certificates and the fight against polygamy and forced marriages, practices that are not formally linked to a religion. Critics believe that these and other provisions are already covered in existing laws.
It would also ensure that children from the age of 3 attend regular school, a way to direct homeschooling where ideology is taught and to provide for the training of all public employees in secularism. Anyone who threatens a public employee is in danger of being jailed. In another reference to Paty, the slain teacher, the bosses of a public employee who is threatened with action are forced to do so if the employee agrees.
The bill establishes mechanisms to ensure that mosques and associations that run it are not under the banner of foreign interests or homemade Salafists with a strict interpretation of Islam.
Associations must sign a contract with respect for French values and repay state funds if they cross a border. Police officers and prison staff must take an oath to respect the country’s values and the constitution,
To accommodate changes, the law in France amends the 1905 law that guarantees separation of church and state.
Some Muslims said they were experiencing a climate of suspicion.
“There is confusion … A Muslim is a Muslim and that’s all,” taxi driver Bahri Ayari said after worshiping during the afternoon prayers in the Grand Mosque of Paris.
“We’re talking about radicals, I do not know what,” he said. “There’s a book. There is a prophet. The prophet taught us. ”
As for convicted radicals, he said, their crimes are “placed on the back of Islam. This is not what a Muslim is. ”
___
Jeffrey Schaeffer in Paris contributed to this report.