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100 French Officials Warn Against Muslim Stigmatization Amid Veil Debate
Thursday 24 October 2019, by
At the heart of the debate on the veil that is agitating France, 100 local elected officials from various political backgrounds are alerting against the risk of creating a "society of suspicion", "by too much pointing the finger at a community of believers", the Muslims, and therefore of dividing society. For them, France is getting bogged down in stirring up the specter of division. A rally against Islamophobia was also held on Saturday in Paris.
While a bill on the "religious neutrality" of school trip chaperones was being debated on Wednesday in the Senate, the Journal du Dimanche indicates that 100 local elected officials, from different political backgrounds, denounce the debate on the veil, which, according to them, could inflame the country if we are not careful.
For them, this debate, in its current proportions, "sows trouble and suspicion on a faith that aspires to nothing but the right to normality". They warn against the consequences of stigmatization within an already fragile society.
In a text that takes the measure of the situation, the local elected officials, signatories of this column, denounce the prejudices towards Muslims, the inconsistency of political positions at the highest level of the State, which constitute perilous shortcuts towards which France is being drawn.
"With each threat looming over the country and with each terrorist attack, our fellow citizens of the Muslim faith tremble doubly," we read in this text.
It denounces the "senseless" remarks of the Minister of National Education who declares that he wants to "report little boys who refuse to hold the hand of little girls" and those of the Deputy Director of Le Figaro who claims on television "to hate the Muslim religion". For them, if people passionate about love and peace do not stop the bleeding now while there is still time, France risks crossing the Rubicon.
The suspension of subsidies to the University of Cergy, according to the newspaper, is the beginning of a dull rumble spreading like the plague and which has only one name: denunciation! "By too much pointing the finger at a community of believers, by making them a potential threat as soon as they wear a beard or a veil, we are no longer in a society of vigilance but in one of suspicion," warn the local elected officials who call for respect for secularism.
"Our nation is one and indivisible. The President of the Republic is the guarantor of this principle. We expect him to stand up and proclaim it to all."