France Unlikely To Lift Ban On Turban

[Azaad]

Asserting that there was no discrimination against the Sikh community in France, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe today virtually ruled out lifting the ban on wearing turban in his country.

“France believes in democracy and freedom. For us, religion must not interfere in political and daily life. We have passed a legislation banning the use of religious signs in public places,” he said at a joint press conference with External Affairs Minister SM Krishna after wide-ranging talks between the two leaders.

He went on to say that the Sikhs were treated like the Christians, Jews and members of other communities in France and hoped a solution could be found to the stand-off on the issue through talks between the departments concerned of India and France.

The ban on turban in France followed by some other European countries taking a similar action has caused a lot of concern in India, particularly among the members of the Sikh community. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other Indian leaders have taken up the matter with Paris from time to time but in vain.

Krishna also conveyed to his French counterpart the sentiments of the Sikh community on the issue. He said New Delhi was pursuing the matter with the European Union too and hoped to find a solution.

“The turban is a symbol of dignity. It is a sensitive issue for every Indian. We had discussions with the French to find a mutually acceptable solution. I have also written to the Italian Foreign Minister on the problems faced by the Sikhs at the airports in that country. We are pursuing the matter with the EU as well,” he added.

Even as concerns increase over the safety of nuclear facilities in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in March, India and France have renewed their commitment to go ahead with nuclear reactors at Jaitapur in Maharashtra and resolved to deepen their cooperation in areas ranging from terrorism to the global financial crisis.

Civil nuclear cooperation figured prominently in talks between the two ministers. “We discussed the issue of safety related to civil nuclear cooperation with India. Nuclear energy is a vital source of power provided we develop the highest standards of safety,” French Minister Juppe said.

“France is determined to be completely open on the steps we have taken for safety,” he said, adding that safety provisions would be woven into the final agreement on EPR (European Pressurised Reactors). Krishna underlined India s commitment to the Jaitapur plant. “We are awaiting the French safety reviews of EPRs. We are committed to highest standards of safety,” he said.

[hsisingh]

France has a secular constitution with a strong separation between state and religion..they are not going to amend for the benefit of the Sikhs.

[singh135]

So dumb

[Only five]

France does not have an secular government, but an extremist government, that is against religion. A secular government recognizes the importance of religion and its practices, but does not favor one religion over the other or hinder the religious practices of any religion as long as they are sound and reasonable to be practiced in a state without harm or threat to any citizen or the state. France does not recognize the importance of religion and its role in society. When you ban religious signs from public places then the government is refered to as an oppressive and dictator government.

Does a state come first or the people? It is foolish and arrogance to believe that people and their culture or religion is separate. When a person walks into the state his religion or culture does not stay at the border or is not left at the doors of the government building. The ideas and thoughts that a person expresses is rooted and brought forward from their background, which consist of their culture and religion. The France government cannot call themselves a secular government. But a government that is abusing their authority over others, to accept their culture. The Prime Minister of France is a Roman Catholic. Does he not believe that his ideas and the way his government is run will be greatly influenced by his upbringing and his practice of the Roman Catholic ways? This secular jargon the France government presents is just another way to oppress the minority into submitting to their ways and then their religion.

Deny a person his culture and religion, sooner or later it fades from their way of life. Give the person something that the government agrees with in society and slowly the person will take to what is accepted because life is not made difficult. It's human nature to start practicing the easy way of life. Only an handful will struggle to keep their religion.

[hsisingh]

France does not have an secular government, but an extremist government, that is against religion. ....................................

Deny a person his culture and religion, sooner or later it fades from their way of life. Give the person something that the government agrees with in society and slowly the person will take to what is accepted because life is not made difficult. It's human nature to start practicing the easy way of life. Only an handful will struggle to keep their religion.

The facts (which can be quite useful) is that France has maintained a strong separation between the State and religion since its revolutionary days in the late 1700s - because of the influential and oppressive role played by the Catholic establishment.

[Only five]

The facts (which can be quite useful) is that France has maintained a strong separation between the State and religion since its revolutionary days in the late 1700s - because of the influential and oppressive role played by the Catholic establishment.

Why only present one side. The Catholic's took an extreme stand and when the revolutionist came in power to eliminate the Church. They took an extreme stand and acted in extreme ways. Today they still stand on the extremism they started 300 years ago (it seem to start 300 years ago). Does that help their cause. No it just shows they have been extremist for 300 plus years. When the revolution was taking place the Catholics were part of setting up the governments. They were not completely kicked out. And today they have a Catholic Prime Minister. In the 20th century the so called secular French government contributed to fund four different religions. And one of them was Catholic. The state of France built the Catholics churches using the tax money collected by the state from every single citizen of France. Now that is not at all a 'strong' or secular government, but a government that takes advantage of the minorities.

There was a struggle when the Catholics were told that the state owned the churches, but then this settled, because this was not to interfere, but to keep Catholics safe and to spread the Catholic religion. More than 51% of France is Catholic. How in the world does this happen, if revolutionist had done away with any religious aspects being part of the state. It's lack of knowledge to believe the Catholic Church has no influence on the France government.

The dominate religion is playing political games with the minority religions.