Legal News

French High Court: Salafism ?Not Compatible? With French Values

By Dan Slater

Last month, French courts handed down two decisions that directly address the tension between religious and secular rights in France. First, a Paris court convicted actress Brigitte Bardot of provoking racial hatred for writing that Muslims are destroying France. Several weeks later France’s highest court denied citizenship to Faiza Mabchour, a Moroccan woman, on the grounds that she practices a form of Islam called Salafism, which requires a rigorous interpretation of the Quran.

Credit: Associated Press.

In a recent ruling, the Conseil d’Etat dismissed an appeal by Mabchour to recognize her right to become French because she is married to a Frenchman. Upholding a judgment from 2005, the court said that while Mabchour speaks fluent French, her religious practices are “not compatible with the essential values of the French community, notably the principle of gender equality.”

The court, according to this report in the WSJ, based its decision on immigration-police reports saying that Mabchour acted submissively before her husband and, during questioning, wore a garment that fully covered her body and concealed her face. (Here’s more on the story from The National.)

In France, immigrants must sign a “contract of integration” that attests to their support for French ideals such as “laicite,” — secularism — or risk expulsion.

“I hope people won’t judge the entire Muslim community of France by this example,” Moroccan-born Mohamed Béchari, president of the National Federation of French Muslims, told the WSJ. “Muslims are not oppressed in France.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on July 14, 2008 (boomark / email).