French Muslims reopen headscarf, holiday debate

France's largest Muslim organisation has urged the state to rethink its ban on Islamic headscarves in schools and to recognise Islamic holy days, reopening a debate most French thought was closed.

The Union of French Islamic Organisations (UOIF), broadest of several groups representing Europe's largest Muslim minority, charged at the weekend that Paris limited religious freedom by expelling veiled schoolgirls and ignoring three Muslim feast days.

The Education Ministry declared a ban on religious symbols in state schools a success two weeks ago, but groups canvassing support for private Muslim schools at the UOIF annual convention argued the divisive issue had not gone away.

UOIF Secretary-General Fouad Alaoui said the calm atmosphere now, following the polarised national debate that led to the headscarf ban in March 2004, allowed a new look at what he said was the compromised state of religious freedom in France.

"It is compromised because today, in our country, they expel young girls from school for making the mistake of refusing to show their ears," he told the meeting in this Paris suburb.

"I don't think we can teach a real culture of respect for others if we demand that our minorities amputate themselves of their differences," he said on Saturday.

France, whose five million Muslims make up eight per cent of the population, banned "conspicuous religious signs" in state schools last year in a move aimed at stemming what it said was the rising influence of radical Islamists among youths.

The UOIF originally encouraged schoolgirls to defy the ban but lined up behind it in last September during a crisis over French hostages in Iraq. In the end, only 48 girls were expelled from school for refusing to uncover their hair.

On March 15, a year after the National Assembly passed the ban, Education Ministry Inspector-General Hanifa Cherifi said the result was "quite positive" and the law had ended 15 years of tension over whether headscarves were allowed.

Mr Alaoui also called for official recognition of main Islamic feast days so Muslims did not feel "that their religion does not have the same status as the majority Catholic religion".

Seven of France's 13 legal holidays are Christian holidays. An official panel studying the headscarf issue suggested adding Islamic holidays, but the National Assembly ignored this and just passed the ban the panel also proposed.

"It would be perfectly normal to end the obligation to work or attend school (on Islamic holy days)," he said.

Mr Alaoui first spoke of two main holidays, referring to the Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha feasts following the annual fasting month of Ramadan and the Haj pilgrimage. Later in the day, he named those and added the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed.

Muslims are split on whether the headscarf is a religious duty in Islam and many veiled girls say they respect classmates who do not cover their hair. The UOIF officially demands only the freedom for girls to decide themselves what to wear.