French MPs to vote on 'anti-separatism' bill to
battle Islamist radicalism
The French
parliament on Tuesday votes on a bill to battle Islamist extremism, which the
state argues is needed to bolster the secular system but critics say breaches
religious freedom.
With an eye
on 2022 elections, President Emmanuel Macron has championed the bill which
seeks to tighten rules on issues ranging from religious teaching, online hate
to polygamy.
It has been
debated in a highly charged atmosphere in France after three attacks late last
year by extremists including the beheading in October of teacher Samuel Paty,
who had shown his pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
The law is
dubbed the anti-separatism bill as ministers fear Islamists are creating
communities that reject France's secular identity and laws, as well as its
values such as equality between the sexes.
France,
home to Europe's largest Muslim community, is still shaken by the succession of
massacres committed by Islamist militants from January 2015 that left hundreds
dead.
The
National Assembly lower house is expected to vote on the legislation in the
afternoon after a total of 135 hours of debates that saw some 313 amendments
adopted.
Macron's
ruling party has a large working majority, meaning the legislation is expected
to pass, but the upper house Senate will also examine the draft legislation in
the coming months and could amend it.
Interior
Minister Gerald Darmanin said after the final debate on Saturday that the bill
"provides concrete responses to... the development of radical Islam, an
ideology hostile to the principles and values on which the Republic is
founded."
Paty's
killing prompted the inclusion of the specific crimes of online hate speech and
divulging personal information on the internet that could be used to harm a
public-sector worker.
Paty was
the subject of an online hate campaign started by a parent of a child at his
school who objected to him showing the prophet cartoons.
Under the
legislation, doctors will also be fined or jailed if they perform a virginity
test on girls, while it also extends sanctions on polygamy.
The state
will also have far greater powers to close down places of worship that are
found to air "theories or ideas" that "provoke hate or violence
towards a person or people."
One of the
most contentious articles concerns home schooling, with the rules considerably
sharpened to require official authorisation on grounds of health or handicap
for children to learn at home.
But for the
right-wing opposition The Republicans (LR) the bill does not go far enough,
notably by not restricting the wearing of the Islamic veil in spaces like
universities.
"It's
a small law on a big subject," said LR MP Julien Ravier. The right, which
has the majority in the Senate, may try to toughen it further when it enters
the upper house.
Nearly 200
people demonstrated in Paris on Sunday against the bill accusing it of "reinforcing
discrimination against Muslims".
A US envoy
on religious freedom last year criticised the bill as "heavy-handed"
and it has sparked unusually critical coverage in English-language media, even
prompting Macron to write personally to the Financial Times to defend it.
Analysts
have said Macron, who came to power in 2017 as a centrist reformer, has
noticeably tacked to the right over the last months as he scents that his 2022
presidential reelection battle will come down to a run-off duel with far right
National Rally (RN) leader Marine Le Pen.
Darmanin
visibly shocked Le Pen herself and surprised even his own party colleagues by
accusing Le Pen of "softness" on Islam during a debate on Thursday
night.
Le Pen, who
has proposed banning the veil in all public places in France, said at the
debate she was "disappointed" by the scope of the bill.
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