While France has tried to maintain a cozy relationship with the Islamic world, French Interior Minister Nicholas Sarkozy said in Paris the government might expel all Muslim clerics disseminating militant views.
The minister also said France will not hesitate to close down mosques preaching Islamic fundamentalism.
The minister, who spoke to the daily La Figaro, said among others: "Mosques where fundamentalism is preached will be shut down. Imams that express radical views will be expelled and speakers who do not guarantee respect for the republic's rules will see their entrance visas refused."
France has a Muslim population of 5 million, mainly of North African descent.
Sarkozy also said: "I do not negotiate with extremists. I have a dialogue with the Muslim community in France as it is, in all its diversity." The minister also said he has no regrets if his words are making the Islamic community unhappy.
In an earlier statement made last April, the minister also cautioned the Union of Islamic organizations in France to refrain from agitation. This came after the militant organization showed strong election results of fundamentalist views within the fledgling French Muslim Council.
"We want to rid Islam in France of foreign influences," the minister told Europe 1 radio. "Imams who make statements that run contrary to the values of the Republic will be deported."
Liberals have criticized the UOIF, saying it has close links with the Muslim Brotherhood -- the originally Egyptian movement, which calls for Islamic rule via personal purification and political action -- and should have no official place in a secular country like France.
France is not alone among European nations showing concern over the increasing population of Muslims and their rising militancy. Denmark's right-wing government just published a plan to curb the activities of radical religious leaders, which politicians said was aimed at Islamic clerics.
The proposal is part of a package of strict new immigration laws the government announced last week.
It has the support of the government's far-right ally, the Danish People's Party, and the opposition Social Democrats and is therefore expected to sail through parliament in October.
The rules oblige religious leaders to be financially self-sufficient, speak Danish and respect "Western values" or risk being declared persona non grata.
They are apparently designed to deter radical Islamic clerics from establishing bases in Denmark and clip the wings of those already living in the tiny country.
Although the new rules do not specifically target Islamic leaders, which would leave the government open to accusations of discrimination, politicians confirmed they were aimed at Muslim clerics, or imams.
Integration Minister Bertel Haarder told the Jyllands-Posten newspaper some imams would be forced to leave Denmark because they would not be able to comply with the new rules and would therefore be refused residence permits.
"I think the most fundamentalist of the imams, who are poorly educated and speak Danish badly, will end up having to go back home," he said. "The imams have a very negative influence on both parents and young people," he added.
Back in France, the education minister said he is opposed to a law banning headscarves in public schools but wants, instead, legislation that includes a "vigorous" reminder of the principle of secularism. The minister, Luc Ferry, told a commission examining the issue of secularism that a legal ban on wearing the traditional Muslim head covering in the classroom risks creating "martyrs."
President Jacques Chirac created the commission on secularism in July amid a heated debate on Muslim headscarves in schools. The commission is to present its findings by the end of the year.
The headscarf issue has simmered in France since 1989 when two Muslim girls in Creil, outside Paris, defied school orders to remove their headscarves. It was reawakened this spring when Sarkozy reminded a gathering of Muslims that headscarves are forbidden on national identity photos.
The Council of State, the highest administrative body, has ruled that headscarves in schools should be banned when they are "ostentatious" or risk provoking confrontations. But it left that assessment in the hands of schools. Ferry noted that the Council's opinion "allows for a very firm position in case of difficulty."
Posted by Muddy at September 26, 2003 06:11 AM | TrackBackI've always told you only blatant dummies could think the french foreign policy was directed at pleasing its own muslim or arab population.
This government does not really rally the arab vote.
Sarkozy wants to appear as super cop. I'm more in favor of free speech. But of course some limits have to be drawn.