Islam and France

Here is food for your thought. France is trying to stay secular. Islamic groups want to express their faith publicly. The fight is on. What's your reaction to this? Who's right? Steffen schmidt

France Won't Meet Demand to Stop Ban on Head Scarves By ELAINE SCIOLINO New York Times

Published: August 30, 2004

PARIS, Aug. 29 - A day after a militant Islamic group holding two French journalists in Iraq demanded that France revoke a law banning Muslim head scarves in public schools, the French government vowed on Sunday not to compromise its national ideals as it pleaded for their release.

"I ask solemnly for the liberation" of the hostages, President Jacques Chirac said in a brief and hastily scheduled televised address. He added, "Everything is being done and everything will be done in the coming hours and days to achieve this."

But Mr. Chirac made it clear that something else was at stake: "the values of our republic."

Without specifically mentioning the new French law that bans all "conspicuous" signs of religion, including head scarves, Mr. Chirac said: "France is a land of tolerance. France ensures the equality, the respect, the protection of the free exercise of all religions in the framework of our communal law. This tradition, anchored in our history, is the glue of our national unity."

The hostage-takers' demand is a sharp departure from those put forward in previous kidnappings in Iraq, which often have been carried out to put pressure on a specific government to withdraw its troops from Iraq in exchange for sparing its citizens' lives.