France to ban veiled challenge to values

Muslim headscarves in state schools have become a political challenge to France's fundamental values of openness and tolerance and so must be banned from state classrooms, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said yesterday.

Introducing a controversial bill to ban religious symbols from public schools, Mr Raffarin told the National Assembly that groups challenging the freedom and equality of French society must not agitate in classrooms meant to integrate all citizens.

Mr Raffarin opened four days of debate on the law aimed to stop growing Islamist influence in schools but worded to bar Muslim headscarves, Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses.

The looming ban, whose rigour cannot be understood without recalling the wars of religion France fought before separating church and state, has angered Muslims in France and baffled observers abroad. Religious leaders here have criticised it.

"Certain religious signs, among them the Islamic veil, are multiplying in our schools. They are taking on a political meaning," Mr Raffarin said. "Some want to know how far they can go - we are giving them a response today."

Mr Raffarin rejected arguments from observant Muslims and Jews that head coverings were required by their religions and the ban would violate their freedom of belief. "Religion cannot be a political project," he declared.

The National Assembly is expected to pass the bill easily when it votes on February 10.