French socialist and feminist Catherine Samary defends Tariq Ramadan’s presence at the 2003 European Social Forum.
See here.
For an English translation see here.
Category Archives: France
Salma Yaqoob: hijab – a woman’s right to choose
Addressing the European Social Forum in London on 16 October, Salma Yaqoob gave a brilliant speech in defence of the democratic right to wear the hijab. A transcript can be read here on the website of the National Assembly Against Racism.
Tariq Ramadan under vile press campaign in France
Swiss Muslim intellectual Tariq Ramadan is at the center of a vile campaign by rightist French magazines and newspapers, which accuse him of spearheading what they called the political Islam drive in Europe.
Seeking to blemish his reputation after he had been catapulted into the limelight as a paradigm for moderate Muslims, L’Express magazine ran a front-page photo of Ramadan titled, “The man who wants to establish Islamism in France”.
The ferocious attack came hard on the heels of Ramadan’s success in grabbing the attention of the third round of the European Social Forum, which concluded on October 17. Ramadan took part in three fringe symposiums, calling on Muslims in Europe to fully integrate into their societies, stop casting in the victim mould and get rid of the minority complex.
L’Express further published excerpts from Ramadan’s lectures and seminars recorded on audio tapes, branding them as an outspoken call for Islamizing French society.
It also quoted Ramadan as encouraging Muslims to respect European constitutions so long as they were in line with Islam. “It means that Ramadan has no respect for European constitutions,” the magazine said.
Speech by Abeer Pharaon at Labour Party fringe meeting
“This is about the fundamental freedom to choose. Those who chose not to wear the Hijab have joined forces with those who chose to wear it.”
Speech by Abeer Pharaon (Coordinator of Assembly for the Protection of Hijab) at the fringe meeting organised by National Assembly Against Racism at the 2004 Labour Party Conference.
From the Pro-Hijab website.
The Front National and the hijab ban
It was ironic that the French government’s attack on the right of young Muslim women to observe their religion while pursuing their education met with a distinct lack of enthusiasm from the extreme right-wing Front National. FN leader Jean-Marie Le Pen commented at one point that he supported the wearing of the veil … because it meant he didn’t have to look at ugly women: “Le voile musulman: il nous protège des femmes laides” (Le Monde, 22 April 2002). Some on the Left have used the FN’s semi-opposition as an argument in favour of the hijab ban.
However, the following article by FN general secretary Carl Lang, “Vous avez aimé l’immigration? Vous allez adorer l’islamisation” (You liked immigration? You’ll love Islamicisation), from Le Pen’s publication Français D’Abord! (15 December 2003), shows that the main reason the FN failed to throw its weight behind the hijab ban was that the measure failed to deal with what the FN argues is the real problem – the encroaching Islamicisation of French society arising from an influx of Muslim migrants.
It is also worth noting that, as the French press pointed out, the overwhelming majority of FN voters supported the hijab ban. They presumably took a more pragmatic view, reasoning that while the measure fell short of a complete block on Muslim immigration and the extirpation of Islam from France, it was at least a step in the right direction.
Tariq Ramadan under vile press campaign in France
Swiss Muslim intellectual Tariq Ramadan is at the center of a vile campaign by rightist French magazines and newspapers, which accuse him of spearheading what they called the political Islam drive in Europe.
Seeking to blemish his reputation after he had been catapulted into the limelight as a paradigm for moderate Muslims, L’Express magazine ran a front-page photo of Ramadan titled, “The man who wants to establish Islamism in France”. The ferocious attack came hard on the heels of Ramadan’s success in grabbing the attention of the third round of the European Social Forum, which concluded on October 17.
Islamophobia divides the left in France
The new school term in France is the first under the new law which bans Muslim girls from wearing a Muslim headscarf to school. The vast majority of the young women involved (in general between fourteen and eighteen years old) have agreed under duress to remove the headscarf in school. The hundred or so who have refused have been separated from their fellow-pupils and kept in a separate room (often with separate break-times, no right to use the library and no attention from teachers, despite the legal obligation to provide teaching). Over the next three weeks they will be called to disciplinary committees and expelled from schools. They will join an unspecified number who have been too intimidated to turn up at school since the passage of the law.
John Mullen (LCR Montreuil) on Socialist Unity Network website
Guardian readers hail France’s secular success
Letters defending the French hijab ban.
In the Guardian, 8 September 2004
Liberals can also be fundamentalists
“The secularist arguments behind the hijab ban in France amount to nothing more than a denial of freedoms of expression and choice. Those who look upon the hijab with disdain will now feel at liberty to abuse those who wear it, given that the state legitimises their feelings. This state oppression will alienate the Muslim population in France. It will result in Muslim women being stigmatised. Secular fundamentalism is as abhorrent as religious extremism.”
Yasmin Ataullah writing in the Guardian, 3 September 2004
French scarf ban comes into force
A law banning Islamic headscarves and other religious symbols from French state schools came into effect on Thursday, the first day of term.