In the first year of Macron’s presidency, one other school lost public funding, pledged in May 2017 by the government of former president Francois Hollande.

Since 2017, only one Muslim school has been awarded state funding, compared to nine in total under Macron’s two predecessors, Education Ministry data shows. The National Federation for Muslim Education (FNEM) told Reuters it made about 70 applications on behalf of Muslim schools in that period.

Reuters spoke to more than a dozen current and former headmasters and teachers in ten Muslim schools, who said the establishments were being targeted, including being censured on flimsy grounds, and that perceived discrimination was preventing them integrating more closely with the state system.

“It’s really a double standard of who has to conform to secular Republican values in a certain way, and who doesn’t,” said American anthropologist Carol Ferrara, who studies French faith schools and says Catholic and Jewish schools are treated more leniently.

Prominent Parisian Catholic school Stanislas has kept its funding despite inspectors last year finding issues including sexist or homophobic ideas and mandatory religious classes, French media has reported.

The education ministry said the government had increased supervision of private schools under Macron, leading to more closures, including of some non-denominational schools. It cited budget restraints as a reason for the low number of schools offered public funding.

While some of the five closed Muslim schools taught conservative versions of Islam, according to the education ministry statements and closure orders, the headmasters and teachers Reuters spoke to emphasized their schools’ efforts to create a mainstream and tolerant teaching environment.

“There was never a desire for separatism,” said Mahmoud Awad, board member at Education & Savoir, the school that lost state funding soon after Macron took office.

A prohibition on hijab headscarves in public schools in 2004 created demand for schools where Muslim students, and in particular girls, could express religious identity.

An estimated 6.8 million Muslims live in France, data from France’s statistics agency shows, around 10% of the population. Islam is the country’s second-largest religion after Catholicism.

In a 2020 speech, Macron described a need to reverse what he saw as radicalization in Muslim communities, including practices such as the separation of sexes.

“The problem is an ideology which claims its own laws should be superior to those of the Republic,” he said.

Rights group Amnesty International has warned the government’s approach is potentially discriminatory and risks reinforcing stereotypes that conflate all Muslims with terrorism or radical views.

Source: Reuters

A spotlight of suspicion was trained on them again even before the latest acts of extremist violence, including two beheadings. President Emmanuel Macron has forged ahead with his effort to rid Islam in France of extremists, part of a project he labels “separatism,” a term that makes Muslims wince.

Amid intensifying rhetoric and fresh attacks by outsiders, including the killings of three people Thursday at a Catholic church in Nice, Muslims in France have kept their heads down and chins up. But deep down, some are squirming, feeling they are being held responsible.

Islam is the second religion in France, which has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe. But the country’s estimated 5 million Muslims have walked a delicate line in search of full acceptance in what for many is their nation of birth. Discrimination casts a shadow over some and is an outright barrier to mainstream life for others.

France’s cherished value of secularism, which is meant to ensure religious freedom, has in recent years been used by the state to reign in customs practiced by some Muslims. The president’s proposed law may mean further tinkering with the 1905 secularism law born out of a conflict with the powerful Roman Catholic clergy.

The rise of Islam into public view was gradual and mostly went unnoticed until the far right seized upon it as a threat to the French identity. Over the years mosques have multiplied, along with Muslim schools.

The religion with no single leader has multiple strains in France, running from moderate to Salafist with a rigorous interpretation of the religion to outright radical upstarts.

In his project, Macron envisions measures like training imams in France instead of bringing them in from Turkey, Morocco or Algeria.

Source: The Associated Press

According to the Jewish Chronicle, the rabbinate of Chinuch UK have made it clear that its 35 or so private schools cannot comply with the latest pro LGBT directives from the state. Orthodox Judaism, like Islam, prohibits homosexuality. However, no Muslim schools have taken such a clear stand against LGBT teachings up to now.

In a statement, Chinuch UK said that schools should not “not describe to pupils lifestyles prohibited by the Torah” and “ensure that inspectors do not speak to pupils about these matters at all.” They said schools, when asked by inspectors, should “state clearly and respectfully that they do not cover these subjects.” But schools were directed “to demonstrate that pupils are taught to act respectfully to all people regardless of difference.”

The declaration from Chinuch UK’s rabbis has been provoked by recent correspondence to some schools from the Department for Education. Independent schools are required as part of their teaching to cover groups listed in Equality Law which include those of same-sex orientation or who have reassigned their gender.

Schools are also required to acknowledge the existence of LGBT people as part of relationships and sex education which comes into force this September.

Source: 5pillarsuk.com