Malta's Muslim community yesterday staged a peaceful protest from City Gate to the French embassy in Melita Street, Valletta.

The protest was staged to express their "deep distress" over the French's government's proposed law to ban the wearing of traditional Muslim headscarf, the hijab, in state schools.

The protesters believed that the law, which is also proposing to ban Jewish skullcaps and Christian crosses from the schools, violates fundamental human rights and basic, personal freedom - the essence of secular French Constitution, they said in a statement.

A group of Muslims, accompanied by a few women and children, their heads wrapped in the traditional headscarves, walked down Republic Street, carrying posters, with the words: "The veil is my choice"; "Banning the veil is injustice"; "Hijab is our right"; and "Do not makes us sin".

In its statement, the Maltese Muslim community said the proposed law was based on a misunderstanding of Islamic teachings because the headscarf for Muslim women was not a religious symbol, but a religious obligation and submission to the will of God. Muslim women, who did not fulfil their obligation, would be committing a sin, they said.

The Maltese Muslim community said the headscarf had nothing to do with politics, extremism, or the suppression of women.

It felt that it did not negatively affect the teaching process, or the integration of Muslim women in French society.

If the proposed law were to be approved by the French parliament, the French authorities would be pushing Muslim students to act against their faith and lead them to abandon their education, they said.

The Maltese Muslim community believed that such "unjust" laws would generate and deepen divisions in societies.

It appealed to French President Jacques Chirac to withdraw the proposed law, maintaining the reputation France enjoys of championing and protecting human rights and freedom.