French Court Says School Must Offer Muslim Children An Alternative To Pork At Lunch

According to The Guardian yesterday, in France a trial court judge has told local officials that they must re-institute a policy of offering an alternative to pork meals for school lunches. A court in Dijon told officials in Chalon-sur-Saône that a refusal to offer an alternative for Muslim children is not "in keeping with the spirit of the international convention on the rights of children" nor "in the interests of the children." The the mayor of Chalon-sur-Saône, a member of the right wing Les Républicains party, argued that by requiring all children to eat together, the city was upholding the French Republic’s principle of laïcité  (secularism). The city plans an appeal.

French Presidential Candidate Le Pen Refuses To Wear Headscarf To Meet With Lebanese Grand Mufti

In French presidential elections, far-right National Front party leader Marine Le Pen leads in the polls for the April 23 first round, as national security has become the leading concern of voters. As of now, polls show Le Pen losing in the May runoff.  (AlJazeera, Bloomberg)  Le Pen has just completed a three-day trip to Lebanon where she attracted news attention when she refused to wear a headscarf for a meeting with the country's highest Sunni cleric.  According to an AP report:

The headscarf incident occurred ahead of a scheduled meeting with Lebanon's grand mufti, Sheikh Abdel-Latif Derian.

Shortly after Le Pen arrived at his office, one of his aides handed her a white headscarf to put on. Following a discussion with his aides that lasted a few minutes, she refused and returned to her car.

Le Pen told reporters:  "I consider the headscarf a symbol of a woman's submission. I will not put on the veil."

Russia Extends Reach Into France Via New Orthodox Cathedral

A newly-constructed Russian Orthodox Cathedral in the heart of Paris is a symbol of Russian use of religion to extend the country's political reach.  World Policy Blog yesterday reported:

The controversial Sainte-Trinité Russian Orthodox cathedral, set to be consecrated by the Russian Patriarch Kirill in early December, is the result of determined diplomacy by the Kremlin and lobbying of French officials, including François Fillon, the new favorite to win France’s 2017 presidential election....

The $120 million cathedral was financed by the Russian state and backed by President Vladimir Putin. The structure was completed as his country’s relations with France and its NATO allies nosedived over the deployment of Russian firepower in Syria and Ukraine.

While those interventions have come to define Putin’s presidency, the riverside “St Vladimir’s,” as the cathedral has been nicknamed, represents another side of his foreign policy. Also divisive, it is a high water mark in his use of faith and power abroad.

European Parliament Lifts Jean-Marie Le Pen's Immunity To Allow Race Hatred Prosecution

AFP and The Forward report that on Tuesday the European Parliament lifted the legal immunity of Jean-Marie Le Pen, former head of France's far-right National Front Party. The move allows French prosecutors to put Le Pen on trial for inciting racial hatred.  The charges stem from a 2014 interview video posted on the National Front website in which Le Pen countered criticism from singer Patrick Bruel, who is Jewish, by using a reference to the Nazi gas chambers. Le Pen said Bruel should "go in the oven."

France's Le Pen Would Extend Ban On Religious Symbols In Public

In France, right-wing National Front Party leader Marine Le Pen told a TV station this week that if she is elected President next year, she will extend to all public places the ban on "conspicuous religious symbols" like Muslim headscarves that now applies to public schools. As reported today by New Europe, Le Pen says the ban will include the kippah (skullcap) worn by many observant Jews.  She explained:

It is clear that kippahs are not the issue within our country. But for the sake of equality, they should be prohibited. If I requested to ban solely Muslim attire, people would slam me for hating Muslims.

I know it’s a sacrifice, but I think the situation is too serious these days… I think every French person, including our Jewish compatriots, can understand that if we ask them for a sacrifice in order to help fight against the advance of this Islamic extremism… they will make the effort, they will understand, I am absolutely convinced because it will be in the best interests of the nation.

The French Jewish community has condemned Le Pen's proposal. Washington Times surveys Le Pen's chances in the election.

French Official Proposes New Efforts To Align Muslims With French Secular Values

Al Jazeera reports that in France on Monday, Muslim leaders met with Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve to discuss the future of Islam in the country. The Interior Minister wants to set up three new organizations to help French Muslims align their beliefs with the secular values of France. One of the organizations would focus on integration of the Muslim faith, the second on the building of mosques, and the third on Imams. Imams would be required to use French instead of Arabic for their sermons, and they would need to "understand French values".  The move comes in the wake of new tensions in the country over full-body swim suits worn by Muslim women. (See prior posting.)

Top French Court Invalidates Burkini Ban

France's top administrative court-- the Council of State-- today overturned the ban on burkini swim suits imposed by the town of Villeneuve-Loubet.  According to France 24, the court ruled that restrictions on individual liberties are justified only if there is a "proven risk" to public order. Some 30 French towns have adopted similar restrictions on the full-body swimsuit worn by Muslim women, justifying them as a provocation in light of recent terrorist attacks in France.  Today's ruling presumably sets precedent that will invalidate all of these. (See prior related posting.)

UPDATE: Here is the full text (in French) of the Council of State's decision in the case.

French Town Official Threatens To Sue Those Circulating Photos of Burkini Ban

In France in recent weeks, a number of seaside towns have barred Muslim women from wearing the "burkini"-- a swimsuit that covers them from knees to chest. (See prior posting.) The bans have variously been supported by reference to the French principle of laïcité (secularism in the public sphere), or by arguments that the burkini represents the "enslavement of women," or that the swimwear is a provocation in light of recent Islamist terrorist attacks in France. Now, photos of police enforcing the ban in Nice which were widely published in European media have become the center of additional controversy as the deputy mayor of Nice yesterday issued a statement (full text in French) threatening to sue anyone who shares the photos online.  He contends that the photos "provoke defamatory remarks and threats" against the police.  As reported by The Verge:

In the image, taken by a French photographer, four male police officers surround the woman and appear to issue a fine. With the men still standing over her, the woman was photographed removing her long tunic top. The agency that released the pictures in the UK said ... that the woman was fined and left the beach, but the office of Nice's mayor denied that she had been forced to remove her clothes, telling AFP that she was only showing the officers that she was wearing a swimsuit under her clothes. Notably, the woman was not wearing a burkini, but a long-sleeved tunic, headscarf, and leggings. The legal basis for Estrosi's lawsuit threats remains unclear.

French Mayor Bans Muslim Burkinis On Beach [UPDATED]

In an order issued on July 28, but first publicized last week, the mayor of the seaside French city of Cannes has banned swimwear that does not reflect "good morals and secularism."  The order, which is effective through August, is aimed at preventing Muslim women from wearing burkinis-- full-body swimsuits.  According to NBC News, the mayor said that after last month's terrorist attack in nearby Nice killing 80 people and the subsequent attack on a church:

Beachwear manifesting religious affiliation in an ostentatious way, while France and its religious sites are currently the target of terrorist attacks, could create the risk of disturbances to public order.

UPDATE: Qantara reports that  an Aug. 13 court decision upheld the Cannes ban:

Three women backed by the Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF) challenged the Cannes decision.... But a court in Nice rejected the request, saying the move was legal under French law forbidding people from "invoking their religious beliefs to skirt common rules regulating relations between public authorities and private individuals".

Meanwhile the resort of Villeneuve-Loubet imposed a similar ban.

French Mayor Will Ban Women's Swim Because of Required Modest Dress

In France, the mayor of Pennes-Mirabeau-- a town near Marseille with a large Muslim population-- says he will ban a swim day for women planned at a local park for next month.  According to an AP report yesterday, the event is planned by the socio-cultural group Smile 13.  Women swimming at the event will be required to be covered from knee to chest (awra) in accordance with Muslim notions of modesty.  Mayor Michel Amiel says the decision to call for women to swim covered up is a "provocative act" and risks disturbing the public order after the recent terrorist attacks in Nice and at a Normandy church. [Thanks to Scott Mange for the lead.]

European Court Favors Muslim Employee's Right To Wear Hijab At Work

The Court of Justice of the European Union last week released an Advocate General's opinion on whether under European Union Directive 2000/78 a private employer may bar a Muslim employee from wearing a hijab at work when a customer objects to the head covering. The Advocate General's opinion in Bougnaoui v. Micropole SA, (CJ EU, July 13, 2016), is the first step in the Court's rendering an advisory opinion to France's Court of Cassation on the meaning of the EU employment discrimination directive.  The Advocate General's opinion provides a recommendation to a panel of the Court's judges who will then render a decision. The Advocate General concluded that barring wearing of the hijab under these circumstances amounts to both illegal direct and indirect discrimination. The Advocate General said in part:

73. When the employer concludes a contract of employment with an employee, he does not buy that person’s soul. He does, however, buy his time. For that reason, I draw a sharp distinction between the freedom to manifest one’s religion – whose scope and possible limitation in the employment context are at the heart of the proceedings before the national court – and proselytising on behalf of one’s religion. Reconciling the former freedom with the employer’s right to conduct his business will, as I shall demonstrate, require a delicate balancing act between two competing rights. The latter practice has, in my view, simply no place in the work context. It is therefore legitimate for the employer to impose and enforce rules that prohibit proselytising, both to ensure that the work time he has paid for is used for the purposes of his business and to create harmonious working conditions for his workforce....

133. ... It seems to me that in the vast majority of cases it will be possible, on the basis of a sensible discussion between the employer and the employee, to reach an accommodation that reconciles adequately the competing rights of the employee to manifest his or her religion and the employer to conduct his business. Occasionally, however, that may not be possible. In the last resort, the business interest in generating maximum profit should then in my view give way to the right of the individual employee to manifest his religious convictions. Here, I draw attention to the insidiousness of the argument, ‘but we need to do X because otherwise our customers won’t like it’. Where the customer’s attitude may itself be indicative of prejudice based on one of the ‘prohibited factors’, such as religion, it seems to me particularly dangerous to excuse the employer from compliance with an equal treatment requirement in order to pander to that prejudice. Directive 2000/78 is intended to confer protection in employment against adverse treatment (that is, discrimination) on the basis of one of the prohibited factors. It is not about losing one’s job in order to help the employer’s profit line.

Law & Religion UK has more on the decision.

Suit In France Says Social Media Failed To Remove Anti-Semitic, Racist, Homophobic and Terrorist Posts

According to the Economic Times, on Sunday in Paris three French groups filed a lawsuit against Twitter, YouTube and Facebook charging that they failed to adequately comply with a 2004 French law that requires deletion within a reasonable time of posts that are racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic or which defend terrorism.  Plaintiffs Jewish Students of France (UEJF), SOS-Racisme,  and SOC Homophobie say that between March 31 and May 10 they discovered 586 such posts, but that the number removed within a reasonable time was 4% by Twitter, 7% by YouTube and 34% by Facebook.

Le Pen Acquitted On Hate Speech Charges

France 24 reports that Marie Le Pen, leader of France's far right National Front Party had hate speech charges against her dropped yesterday.  Le Pen was charged with "inciting discrimination, violence or hatred toward a group of people based on their religious beliefs" for the comments, which she made at a campaign rally in 2010.  The local prosecutor though asked for charges to be dropped because her comments "did not target all of the Muslim community."  At issue were Le Pen's remarks calling street prayers by Muslims in three French cities an "occupation of territory." The presiding judge said that Le Pen's comments, while shocking, were protected as freedom of expression-- a position supported by the French State Prosecutor. (See prior posting.)

European Court Upholds French Hospital's Hijab Ban

The European Court of Human Rights yesterday, in a Chamber Judgment by a panel of 7 judges, upheld the decision of a French hospital to refuse to renew the employment contract of a Muslim social worker who insisted on wearing a headscarf (hijab). The full decision in Ebrahimian v. France, (ECHR, Nov. 26, 2015) is available in French (with a partial dissenting opinion in English). According to the Court's English press release on the decision:

[T]he Court found that the requirement of neutrality of public officials could be regarded as justified in principle: the State, as employer of the applicant in a public hospital, could consider it necessary that she refrain from expressing her religious beliefs in discharging her functions in order to guarantee equality of treatment of patients....  [T]he Court reiterated that while public officials enjoyed total freedom of conscience, they were prohibited from manifesting their religious beliefs in discharging their functions. Such a restriction derived from the principle of the secular nature of the State, and that of the neutrality of public services, principles in respect of which the Court had already approved a strict implementation where a founding principle of the State was involved.

The Court considered that the fact that the national courts had afforded greater weight to the principle of secularism-neutrality and the State’s interest than to Ms Ebrahimian’s interest in not having the expression of her religious beliefs restricted did not cause a problem with regard to the [European] Convention [on Human Rights].

A Chamber Judgment may be appealed to the ECHR Grand Chamber. The Scotsman reports on the decision.  [Thanks to Paul de Mello for the lead.]

European Court Rejects Appeal of Conviction For Comedy Performance Promoting Holocaust Denial

The European Court of Human Rights yesterday held inadmissible (i.e. dismissed at a preliminary stage as incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights) the appeal of a conviction by a French court of a comedian charged with publicly directing insults at a person or group of persons on account of their origin or of belonging, or not belonging, to a given ethnic community, nation, race or religion.  M'Bala v. France, (ECHR, Nov. 10, 2015) (full text of decision in French) (Press Release in English) involves a comedian who at the end of a show in Paris invited a well-known Holocaust denier onto stage to receive a "prize for unfrequentability and insolence." According to the Court's press release:

The prize, which took the form of a three-branched candlestick with an apple on each branch, was awarded to him by an actor wearing what was described as a “garment of light” – a pair of striped pyjamas with a stitched-on yellow star bearing the word “Jew” – who thus played the part of a Jewish deportee in a concentration camp....

In the Court’s view, this was not a performance which, even if satirical or provocative, fell within the protection of Article 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention on human rights, but was in reality, in the circumstances of the case, a demonstration of hatred and anti-Semitism and support for Holocaust denial. Disguised as an artistic production, it was in fact as dangerous as a head-on and sudden attack, and provided a platform for an ideology which ran counter to the values of the European Convention.

Times of Israel reports on the decision.  [Thanks to Paul de Mello for the lead.]

In France, Marie Le Pen's Trial For Inciting Hatred Towards Muslims Begins

In Lyon, France, yesterday, the trial of Marine Le Pen, leader of the far right National Front Party began.  As reported by The Guardian and The Local, Le Pen is charged with "incitement to discrimination, violence or hatred towards a group of people on the basis of their religion" in a suit brought by four human rights groups. During the campaign in 2010 to take over leadership of the National Front Party from her father, Le Pen complained about Muslims praying in the streets in three French cities where there are shortages of mosques.  She said:

I’m sorry, but for those who really like to talk about the second world war, if we’re talking about occupation, we can also talk about this while we’re at it, because this is an occupation of territory. It’s an occupation of swaths of territory, of areas in which religious laws apply … for sure, there are no tanks, no soldiers, but it’s an occupation all the same and it weighs on people.

In court, the French State Prosecutor recommended that the judges find Le Pen's remarks protected by her freedom of expression.

French Court Fines Salafist For Disturbing Mosque

AP reported yesterday that a court in France has handed a victory to a small mosque in Lyon that filed a complaint with authorities about a Salafist member of the mosque who has been disruptive.  The mosque invoked a provision in France's 1905 law on secularism that provides legal recourse against a person who interferes with the ability to express freedom of conscience.  It filed a complaint against Faouzi Saidi who in 2014 criticized the imam, held parallel prayer services and preached his ultraconservative Salafi views to Muslim converts. The court fined Saidi 1500 Euros, with 500 Euros suspended.

Vatican Delays Approval of France's Gay Nominee As Ambassador

Reuters reported yesterday that the Vatican has still not approved the Jan. 5 nomination of Laurent Stefanini as France's new ambassador to the Holy See. Stefanini who once served as the number two person in France's Vatican Embassy has more recently been President Francois Hollande’s head of protocol.  According to Reuters:

French Catholic daily La Croix cited an unnamed source as saying the Vatican considered it “provocation” that France’s Socialist government, which in 2013 passed a law permitting gay marriages, had proposed a homosexual for the post.

French and Israeli Officials Display Some Tensions After Supermarket Terrorist Attack

While most of the media depicted the turnout of world leaders at the Paris march against terrorism on Sunday as a show of unity, there appears to be a continuing tension between French and Israeli officials in the wake of the fatal attack at a kosher supermarket.

First, in a Jan. 12 article, Haaretz reported that originally French officials asked both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to stay away from the solidarity demonstration to avoid diverting attention to controversial issues such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  Originally both leaders agreed. But then when Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Economy Minister Naftali Bennett-- both Netanyahu rivals in the upcoming Israeli elections announced they would attend the Paris demonstration, Netanyahu changed his mind. This led French officials to then extend an invitation to Abbas as well.  French President Hollande showed his anger by leaving the Sunday evening ceremony at the Great Synagogue in Paris as Netanyahu was about to speak. (I24 News reports that Foreign Minister Liberman denied that the French asked Netanyahu not to attend the Paris demonstration.)

Additional tensions have been created by the statement of condolence that Prime Minister Netanyahu issued Saturday evening in which he welcomed French Jews to emigrate to Israel, suggesting a threat to Jewish safety in France. (See prior posting.) Even before the terrorist attack, there has been increasing French Jewish emigration to Israel.  Reacting to that earlier trend, The Atlantic in a Jan. 10 article reports that French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said: "[I]f 100,000 Jews leave, France will no longer be France. The French Republic will be judged a failure." Yesterday, according to the New York Times, the French Interior Minister said that 4,700 police officers would be sent to guard France's 700 Jewish schools and other institutions.

Then at the funeral in Israel today for the four victims of the Paris supermarket shooting, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said: "We cannot allow that in 2015, 70 years since the end of World War II, Jews are afraid to walk in the streets of Europe with skullcaps and tzitzit." (The Local).

In Wake of Terrorism, Broader Anti-Semitism In France Is Examined

In the wake of this week's terrorist attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris, the media are beginning to examine more broadly the issue of rising anti-Semitism in France.  The Telegraph carries an article which begins:

The least surprising thing about today’s turn of events in Paris is that Jews are the target. Because when it comes to home grown anti-Semitism, France leads the world.... No wonder Jewish emigration from France is accelerating.

As reported by JTA, in the wake of the attacks, the Grand Synagogue of Paris was closed for Sabbath services for the first time since World War II.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement (full text) sending condolences to the French Jewish community and the French people, and saying to French and European Jews:

The State of Israel is not just the place to which you turn in prayer. The State of Israel is also your home. This week, a special team of ministers will convene to advance steps to increase immigration from France and other countries in Europe that are suffering from terrible anti-Semitism. All Jews who want to immigrate to Israel will be welcomed here warmly and with open arms. We will help you in your absorption here in our state that is also your state.”