France adopts law to fight Islamist radicalism | International

This is the most ambitious and controversial law of the last part of Emmanuel Macron’s presidency, a project to fight against what the French president has called “Islamist separatism”. Yesterday, the National Assembly adopted a text which tries to update the secular model, guarantor of the freedom of worship and at the same time of the neutrality of the State vis-à-vis religions. The beheading of a high school teacher at the hands of an Islamist and international criticism of Macron for his strategy against Islamism marked a discussion that touches the heart of France’s political identity: secularism.

The “bill which reaffirms the republican principles” – it is finally the full name, that Islam does not mention – modifies certain fundamental laws of modern France, like the 1882 on the freedom of education or the 1905 on the separation of Church and State.

The text was approved by 347 votes in favor, 151 against and 65 abstentions. MPs from La República en March, Macron’s party, as well as those from several small parties that support him, voted in favor. The first opposition party, the traditional right-wing Republicans, voted against, as did La Francia Insumisa, the party of the populist left. The Socialist Party and the six far-right members of the National Regroupement abstained, a party which does not have its own group in the National Assembly, but which aspires to govern France after the presidential elections of 2022 and which occupies a central place in all discussions on national identity and Islam.

The vote ends 135 hours of legislative discussion during which more than 300 amendments were adopted. The debates showcased the clash between the different interpretations of secularism. On the one hand, that of those who advocate a rigorous application of the law of 1905 as a principle applicable to all French people regardless of their religion. On the other, that of those who defend a more attentive application to the diversity of the real France and to the discriminations which can affect the six million Muslims of this country. On the left, one criticism is that measures against social discrimination and stigma are being circumvented, and some accuse the president of playing the game of the far right, which voted in favor of specific articles of the law although abstained during the final vote. On the right, Macron is accused of timidity and criticized for not having clarified that the law is directed against Islamism.

The text will now go to the Senate, controlled by the right. Then the National Assembly will have the last word.

Professor Paty’s imprint

The law will strengthen the control of mosques and associations to ensure that they respect Republican principles and will suppress hate speech on the Internet. It will also create a specific crime punishable by three years in prison and 45,000 euros for “endangering the lives of others by disseminating, for malicious purposes, information related to life”. The article on this new crime is known as the “Samuel Paty article”. This is the name of the high school teacher murdered on October 16 after a social media harassment campaign by a student’s father, displeased that Paty showed a cartoon of Muhammad in a free speech class .

One of the proposals that has generated the most discussion in the National Assembly is that which prohibits home education from the age of three to avoid indoctrination outside the education system. The proposal has been criticized by Christian groups. The final text contemplates a series of exceptions and the measure will not be applied until 2024. Proposals to veto the veil in universities or to prohibit minors from wearing it have not been successful.

The law responds to a context of nearly a decade of jihadist attacks that have left nearly 300 dead. Many of them were perpetrated by French Muslims. Since 2014, some 1,500 French people have joined the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. The authorities consider that there is fertile ground for this radicalization in the districts where mosques or NGOs promote, by indoctrination or hate speech, a project of secession from France, considering that religious norms prevail over republican laws.