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Twenty-five non-governmental organizations from eleven different countries signed an unprecedented letter to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, calling for France to be investigated by the European Court of Justice. The signatories allege systematic, state-sponsored discrimination against Muslims.
The letter calls for immediate action against the French government for what the signatories call “state Islamophobia” and for imposing the allegedly discriminatory charter of republican values.
The document is a key part of President Emmanuel Macron’s effort to isolate radical Islamists from the majority of French Muslims.
The controversial legislation was drafted in 2020 following a wave of violent crimes committed by individuals claiming to act to defend Muslim values.
The law aims to prevent radicalization by introducing a licensing system for Muslim religious teachers, or imams, further tightening rules on home schooling and increasing penalties for crimes such as incitement to hatred.
The law also aims to identify and control the sources of foreign funding of Muslim institutions and associations operating in France.
“ By nature discriminatory ”
The letter to the head of the European Commission says the legislation is inherently discriminatory and uses republican values to stigmatize French Muslim citizens.
The authors claim that the Republican Charter censors freedom of expression in defiance of European law and that the insistence of legislation on the independence of the state and religion makes it impossible to practice Islam in France.
They accuse France of violating the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which guarantees freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and of flouting the European Convention on Human Rights.
Signatories include representatives from CRAN, the French Council of Black Associations, the Swiss Islamic Central Council, the Islamic Council of Victoria in Australia and the London-based Muslim Public Affairs Committee.
In January, the French Council for Muslim Worship adopted the Republican Charter. Attempts have already been made to condemn the legislation at the United Nations Human Rights Council.
France has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe.
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