PARIS (AP) – Legislators passed by overwhelming majority on Tuesday a bill that would strengthen the supervision of mosques, schools and sports clubs to protect France from radical Islamists and ensure respect for French values - one of the landmark projects of the President Emmanuel Macron.
The vote in the Chamber of Deputies was the first critical obstacle to legislation that has long been drafted, after two weeks of intense debate. The bill was approved in 347 to 151, with 65 abstentions.
The broad bill that covers most aspects of French life has been strongly contested by some Muslims, lawmakers and others who fear the state is intruding on essential freedoms and pointing the finger at Islam, the country’s second religion. But it passed through a chamber in which Macron’s centrist party has a majority.
The legislation took on more urgency after a teacher was beheaded in October, followed by a deadly attack on a basilica in Nice. The bill known as Art. 18 is known as the ” Paty law ”, named after Samuel Paty, the beheaded teacher outside his school west of Paris. Legislation considers it a crime to endanger a person’s life by providing details of his or her private life and location. Paty was murdered after information about her school was posted on a video.
The bill reinforces other French efforts to combat extremism, mainly on the basis of security.
Detractors say the measures are already covered by current laws and express suspicions that the project has a hidden agenda on the part of a government that seeks to attract right-wing voters ahead of next year’s presidential elections.
A few days before Tuesday’s vote, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin – the main sponsor of the project – accused far-right leader Marine le Pen, during a televised debate, of being “mild” to radical Islam and that I needed to take vitamins.
The comment was intended to underline that the ruling party is tougher than the extreme right in fighting Islamic radicals. But Le Pen criticizes the project as too weak and offered what she called a tougher counterproposal. Le Pen, who declared his candidacy for the 2022 election, lost in the second round of 2017 against Macron.
The bill – which mentions neither Muslims nor Islam by name – is supported by those who see the need to contain what the government says is an invading fundamentalism that subverts French values, notably the nation’s fundamental value of secularism and gender equality .
The planned law “supporting respect for the principles of the Republic” is dubbed the “separatism” bill, a term used by Macron to refer to the radicals who would create a “counter-society” in France.
The main representatives of all religions were consulted while the text was being written. The government’s main Muslim channel, the French Council for the Muslim Faith, gave its support.
Ghaleb Bencheikh, head of the Foundation for Islam in France, a secular body that seeks progressive Islam, said in a recent interview that the planned law was “unfair but necessary” to combat radicalization.
Among other things, the 51-article bill would ban virginity certificates and repress polygamy and forced marriage, practices not formally linked to a religion. Critics say these provisions are already covered by existing laws.
Among the main measures is the guarantee that children attend regular school from the age of three, a way to target home schools where ideology is taught. Other measures include training all civil servants in secularism. Anyone who threatens a public official risks being arrested. In another reference to Paty, the murdered teacher, the project obliges the heads of a public official who was threatened to act if the official agrees.
The bill introduces mechanisms to ensure that the mosques and associations that administer them are not under the influence of foreign interests or local Salafists with a strict interpretation of Islam.
Associations must sign a letter of respect for French values and return state funds if they exceed the limits.
To accommodate the changes, the bill adjusts the French law of 1905 which guarantees the separation of church and state.
Some Muslims said they felt suspicious.
“There is confusion … A Muslim is a Muslim and that’s all,” said Bahri Ayari, a taxi driver, after worshiping during midday prayers at the Grand Mosque in Paris. “We talk about radicals, I don’t know what. A Muslim is a Muslim and that is all. “As for the convicted radicals, he said, their crimes” are put on the back of Islam. That is not what a Muslim is. ”
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Jeffrey Schaeffer in Paris contributed to this report.