France

[Guest balwinderkaur]

I just watched a coverage on BBC News......in it they said France was planning to make it illegal for religious symbols to be worn. A ban on headscarves is also being planned. This is a cause for concern...just want to know....will singhs /singhnees be affected???? Anyone know more about this..please enlighten.

P.S.: dont know much about this news cuz i juz tuned in when half of the coverage was over

[Vir Singh]

If Gays can live the way they want to in France, then morally there shouldn’t be anything wrong with religious headgear.

[Guest SikhForLife]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/12/11...reut/index.html

French report backs veil ban

Thursday, December 11, 2003 Posted: 9:06 AM EST (1406 GMT)

While supporting a school ban on veils, the report also suggests creating official Jewish and Muslim holidays.

PARIS, France (Reuters) -- France should ban Muslim veils, Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses from its public schools, but also create new holidays to respect holy days of its minority religions, an official report said.

The long-awaited report on church-state relations, the centerpiece of a national debate over integrating Muslims into French society, advised Paris to stand firm against militant Islamists trying to undermine official secularism.

At the same time, Thursday's report urged traditionally Catholic France to respect "all spiritual options" in a society becoming ever more diverse through immigration.

President Jacques Chirac said he would announce next Wednesday whether he would seek a law banning the veil, now a major issue in France amid concern of failed Muslim integration and growing Islamist influence. He has hinted he backs a ban.

"Secularism essentially means respect for differences," commission chairman Bernard Stasi told a news conference.

But he added: "We must be lucid -- there are in France some behaviors which cannot be tolerated. There are without any doubt forces in France which are s

eeking to destabilize the republic and it is time for the republic to react."

Christian, Muslim and some Jewish religious leaders have urged Chirac not to seek an outright ban on religious symbols in public schools. Muslims have been outspoken in defending the veil as a religious obligation they have a right to wear.

The commission proposed barring "conspicuous signs of political or religious affiliation," but said discreet medals -- such as a small cross or Star of David -- were acceptable.

It also suggested adding Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement, and the Eid al-Kebir festival at the end of Islam's Ramadan fasting month to a list of school holidays.

Companies were advised to consider ways of allowing employees to take off the religious holiday of their choice.

France, once so Catholic it was called "the eldest daughter of the Church," is now eight percent Muslim. Islam is its second-largest religion.

Its five-million-strong Muslim community and its 600,000 Jews are both the largest minorities of their kind in Europe.

Apart from the veil, the commission also investigated issues such as Muslim women refusing treatment by male doctors, pupils challenging teachers about the Holocaust and a "new anti-Semitism" among disaffected Muslim youths.

"This anti-Semitism is real in our country," commission secretary Remy Schwartz said. "We found children have to leave public schools in some areas because they are not physically secure... This has profoundly shocked the commission."

The commission was also shocked by cases of discrimination against women and said <admin-profanity filter activated> equality was one of the guiding principles it used for reaching its conclusions.

Schwartz said Muslim girls said they were pressured into wearing veils by family and "outside groups" -- a reference to activists officials say are promoting strict religious practices among French Muslims, who are of mostly North African origin.

"Ma

ny asked for protection from the state, that the state forbids the wearing of religious symbols in school to guarantee their protection and their individual freedom," he said.

Kamal Kabtane, head of the Grand Mosque of Lyon, said Muslims would respect an anti-veil law but added: "This decision will resolve nothing at all. It will only add to the confusion."

[moorakh]

vwihgurU jI kw Kwlsw!

vwihgurU jI kI &iqh!!

There are lot of white sikhs in france in which bibiyan also tie dastaar... Though they are follower of yogi bhajan singh but I am sure they will be affected and will do something...

vwihgurU jI kw Kwlsw!

vwihgurU jI kI &iqh!!

[Summeet Kaur]

Waheguroo Network News also reports...

http://news.waheguroo.com/633Q6-12661-7479...43Q3-73032.html

French report wants religious symbols banned

An excerpt from:

Aljazeera.Net

Thursday, 11th December 2003

A French education commission has recommended a ban on "conspicuous" religious signs in schools, including the Islamic veil and Sikh turban.

The 20-member commission - headed by former government minister Bernard Stasi - gave its report to President Jacques Chirac after three months of consultations with religious leaders, teachers, politicians and sociologists.

Chirac will now have to decide whether to follow the body's recommendations and propose a new law to limit what people can wear in state schools.

Suggestions

However, the report also suggested that Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, and Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim day marking the end of Ramadan, be celebrated in schools.

It also encouraged the establishment of a national school for Islamic studies, as well as the provision of alternative meals in public canteens for observant Muslims and Jews.

But "conspicuous" signs of religious observance - including headscarves worn today by several thousand schoolgirls in France, as well as Jewish kippas or Sikh turbans – are out, the report recommends.

Only “discreet” signs should be permissible, including small medals and crosses on necklaces.

French reaction

A Sikh French MP, Simranjit Singh Mann, has voiced his concerns over a possible French l

aw that would require them to cut their hair and remove their turbans.

Mann, currently in Paris as part of his month-long European and American tour, said he would raise the issue with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and France's ambassador to India.

Shiromani Akali Dal told journalists on Thursday he was appalled at French ignorance about the Sikh religion.

"The French and the Sikhs have known each other for over three centuries now. Yet, now the French seem to be totally ignorant of the Sikh culture. I am surprised and appalled at this."

[...]

[Guest balwinderkaur]

that's what i was concerned about. well hopefully they dont start nitpicking on gursikhs about their dastaar. i was thinking of making another trip to france ....now better start looking elsewhere

[Guest balwinderkaur]

The French and the Sikhs have known each other for over three centuries now. Yet, now the French seem to be totally ignorant of the Sikh culture. I am surprised and appalled at this."

This reminds me of dechristianisation which took place during the radical phase of the French Revolution under Maximilien Robespierre in the 1790s..only thing now is.....its more de-RELIGION-isation than dechristianisation

[Gill]

the french will probably regret this

[S1ngh]

gorayyy they hate seeing minorities leading in all fields.. so they wanna hurt them in some way.. so this is their way and which sux..

[Guest mehtab]

ohho...hunn mennu french che we gaalaan sikhniyaan painiyaan ohna nu kaddan lei @ :v :g