French Prime Minister Jean Castex speaks at a news conference after the weekly cabinet meeting discussions over a draft legislation aimed at clamping down on radical Islamism
Credit: CHARLES PLATIAU/AFP
Emmanuel Macron’s cabinet has approved a draft bill targeting radical Islam that would clamp down on polygamy and forced marriage.
The draft bill “bolstering the principles of the Republic” introduces a raft of new measures as part of President Emmanuel Macron’s drive to get tough on those who foster “separatism” from French society.
His prime minister Jean Castex on Wednesday defined separatism as “the manifestation of a conscious, theorised, political-religious project with an ambition to make religious norms predominate over the law”.
The text, which was completed after an Islamist beheaded teacher Samuel Paty outside Paris in October, also makes it a crime to intimidate public servants on religious grounds.
Under the law, school will be obligatory from the age of three with home schooling for special cases only. The measure is aimed at preventing parents enrolling children in underground Islamic facilities.
Another clause cracks down on online hate speech by enabling judges to hold fasttrack trials of terror suspects. Mr Paty was the target of a vicious online smear campaign for showing his students cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in a class on free speech.
As for forced marriages — a fate that befalls an estimated 200,000 women or so in France, according to NGOs — under the new legislation, if state officials are informed that a potential forced marriage is about to occur, “the agent can proceed with an individual interview of the two potential future spouses to ensure there is consent,” according to Marlène Schiappa, the citizenship minister.
If the agent deems there is any obligation, a prosecutor will be alerted and could block the marriage.
No-one should have to prove they are a virgin, says French citizenship minister Marlene Schiappa
Credit: CHARLES PLATIAU/AFP
Regarding polygamy, which is illegal in France, she said: “We will not give residency status to people who are polygamous.” Anyone already living in France with more than one wife will see his residency status “removed”.
The draft bill also introduces jail terms and fines for doctors who provide controversial so-called "virginity certificates" for traditional religious marriages. Those caught handing them out face a year in jail and fine of €15,000.
“Nobody in the French Republic should have to justify their virginity,” said Ms Schiappa.
Under the law, NGOs and charities suspected of being infiltrated by radical Islamists will have to return any public funds if found to have failed to “respect the principles and values of the republic”.
Another article encourages France’s 2,600 mosques to register as places of worship, so as to better identify them and check they are not espousing extremism. Foreign funding for mosques, while not forbidden, would have to be declared if more than 10,000 euros.
The draft legislation follows a torrent of criticism from Muslim countries over comments by Mr Macron, who said the right to blaspheme would always be guaranteed in France and that Islam was "in crisis". Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed them as "open provocation", while Egyptian scholars called Mr Macron’s views racist. Protests called for the boycott of French goods.
However, Mr Castex insisted: "This bill is not a text aimed against religions or against the Muslim religion in particular.”
"It is the reverse — it is a law of freedom, it is a law of protection, it is a law of emancipation against religious fundamentalism,” he insisted after the cabinet approved a text to present to parliament.
While the current target of the bill was “the pernicious ideology that goes by the name of Islamist radicalism”, he told Le Monde the law would apply to any political ideology that threatens French values.
The law seeks to respond to French concerns over Islamism. A Via Voice poll last month found that 88 per cent of French were worried about the issue.
But the government’s staunch defence of France’s two centuries of secularism, or laïcité, has caused unease even among allies.
"There can be constructive engagements that I think can be helpful and not harmful," said Sam Brownback, a US envoy for religious freedom.
"When you get heavy-handed, the situation can get worse."
Mr Castex said the new bill was needed after "ever more numerous attacks" against France’s principles "which affect our ability to live calmly together".
France has been hit by a spate of Islamist atrocities this year including a knife assault outside the former offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and deadly stabbings at a church in Nice.
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