Beards banned in France

[akjforever]

French Fume Over Proposed Ban on Beards

Wed Jan 21, 4:33 PM ET

By JOCELYN GECKER, Associated Press Writer

PARIS - France's fight to keep religion out of schools has entered new — and some say absurd — territory. Teachers and some religious leaders fumed Wednesday over a government minister's call to ban beards and bandannas from classrooms along with Islamic head scarves, Jewish skullcaps and Christian crosses.

Muslim leaders were divided, with some denouncing a curb on facial hair as "total delirium." Others said street protests against the planned law had rattled the government and provoked a crackdown.

Le Monde newspaper devoted its front-page cartoon to the subject, showing a teacher inspecting a student's beard with a magnifying glass, as veiled women with big smiles looked on.

The latest twist in France's controversial plan to ban religious symbols from classrooms came Tuesday, when Education Minister Luc Ferry said the planned ban on religious symbols could also cover facial hair and bandannas, sometimes worn as a discreet alternative to the traditional Muslim head scarf.

Ferry made the comments during a parliamentary debate, where lawmakers questioned whether the wording of the bill was tough enough. They asked if the ban should cover "visible" religious symbols, rather than "conspicuous" symbols, as the draft law states.

Ferry said the existing wording would allow for a broader interpretation of the law.

And so, "if a beard is transformed into a religious sign it will fall under the law," Ferry said. Likewise, a bandanna "will be banned, if young girls

present it as a religious sign."

This came as a shock to many in France, particularly to teachers who will be at the front line of policing the new law, expected to be in place for the next school year in September. Lawmakers begin debating the bill Feb. 3.

"Beards? Bandannas?" asked Daniel Robin, national secretary of France's largest union for high school teachers. "What next?"

"This exercise has become absurd. Totally absurd," he said in a telephone interview.

How will teachers identify religious facial hair? Would they reprimand a "religious" bandanna but allow it as a fashion statement?

"I don't know how to respond to these questions," said Robin, who added that boys too lazy to shave never were punished in the past. "Beards were never a problem before. Let's not create new problems."

The Education Ministry did not respond to calls asking for clarification of Ferry's remarks.

Ferry declined to speak to reporters as he left a Cabinet meeting Wednesday. Government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope spoke on his behalf, saying only that the new law would be applied "with discretion."

President Jacques Chirac says the law's goal is to protect France's secular underpinnings. However, it also is seen as a way to hold back Islamic fundamentalism in the nation's Muslim community, at an estimated 5 million the largest in Western Europe.

Last weekend, up to 10,000 people — mostly Muslim women in head scarves — marched in Paris to protest the planned law.

The march was organized by the Party of Muslims of France, a small group known for its radical views. The group's president, Mohamed Latreche, called banning of facial hair "total delirium."

"This law has become a farce," he said by telephone. "It's not up to the government to tell us if we can grow beards.

"It proves what we've been saying all along — that this law is anti-Muslim,

" Latreche said.

Dalil Boubakeur, president of the French council of the Muslim religion, had discouraged Muslims from attending the protest, saying the rally would exacerbate the anti-Muslim climate.

"Now, you see the repercussions," Boubakeur said, adding that a ban on bandannas or beards showed "the government was toughening its position."

"I told people not to demonstrate. I told them they'd scare French people — and this fear would result in France closing the door."

[Jaspaul Singh]

@ @

[Khalsa4ever]

vwihgurU jI kw Kwlsw!

vwihgurU jI kI &iqh!!

When will they learn... the more they add to this little bill, the more stupid they look in everyone's eyes!

vwihgurU jI kw Kwlsw!

vwihgurU jI kI &iqh!!

[japmans]

the wierdest part is that that's actually really funny... like are they really THAT stupid?! they're gonna ban BEARDS... wow... like its actually funny if you look at it objectively... obviously not funny for the situations of sikhs there, but just step back and like.. read that headline..."FRANCE BANS BEARDS".... next thing you know, they're gonna ban your toenails being longer than 0.5 mm!

[Gurjeet_Kaur]

oh my god

Insanity at its best...

i think they're trying to make everyone look and act just like everyone else...

the whole concept of "being unique" is below their level of understanding...

[V]

Orite

I was reading the news paper this morning

and I saw that the scarf n stuff was being banned,

then it said that something like

'SIKHS who for religious purposes don't cut their hair

certain discreet turbans will be made exception'

that is PATKA!

And the article said that the 'MUSLIM' beard will be banned

I mean they said, the Sikhs will be made a certain exception '¨

but we should keep signing the petition so that proper PAAGH SHOULD BE ALOUD AS WELL

http://www.reuters.com/locales/newsArticle...storyID=4176232

Bhull chukk maaf :wub:

Waheguroo Jee Ka Khalsa!

Waheguroo Jee Kee Fateh!!

[Akaali]

This is <admin-profanity filter activated> sad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jkaur]

whoa this france dudes are getting insane.. totally out of their mind.. cheap publisity they are lookng for.. wuts wrong with them @

[Guest mehtab]

GADDI CHARRHAAO :v :g

[Guest mehtab]

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/5983_54...08,00430005.htm

After ban on hijab, France wants Sikhs to wear invisible turbans

Vijay Dutt

London, January 22

The march by over 10,000 Muslim women in various French cities on Saturday protesting that the ban on wearing hijab at state schools amounted to an attack on the freedom of religion and was anti-Islam panicked the French government to decide that all "conspicuous" religious symbols should be banned.

The attempt was apparently meant to appease the 2,500,000-strong Muslim population in the country. They felt that the proposed law was an attack on them. But it has not been stated as to what constitutes "conspicuous" religious symbol. That has led to utter chaos.

Other ethnic groups are now agitated. Sikhs want to know if they might be forced to remove their turbans. Or should they, as Luc Ferry, the Education minister said, wear "invisible turbans". Then the question also arises should beards or hairiness of any kind be banned? There are also over 10,000 Assyro-Chaldeans, a Christian sect largely settled in north Paris, who wear large crucifixes.

The association representing 3000 Sikhs in France wrote a letter to the Government on Wednesday pointing out that their community was neither "extremist nor fundamentalist" but that male Sikhs were forbidden by their beliefs from cutting their hair or beard.

Sikh associations in London also marched to Trafalgar Square and presented a memorandum to Tony Blair to intercede on their behalf

and tell the French Government not to ban turbans.

Ferry during a parliamentary debate on Tuesday said that negotiations were under way with the Sikhs and suggested that they could wear an "invisible turban" or hairnet to cover their hair. He also said that the new law would mean that "hairiness" would be banned if it were considered a deliberate symbol of religious identification.

The minister also singled out the Assyro-Chaldeans community and informed they would be banned from wearing outsized crosses. The community also responded by protesting that they were "steeped in laicity" and that in any case their crucifixes were not abnormally large.

The draft law, initially proposed by President Jacques Chirac last December, is likely to get majority with the support of the Socialist opposition. It goes before the National Assembly next week. But now the ranks of the centre-right Government supporters are split.

It is being increasingly realised that any ban on Sikhs wearing turbans or asking them to shave their beards would have spin off effect on the community all over Europe and especially in the UK where they are in hundreds of thousands. Here they are allowed to wear their turban both in the army and the police.