France" "
Seven hundred events called “Djazaïr” in over one hundred French cities, publications, debates, exhibitions and round tables: “The year of Algeria” in France is now in full swing and is aimed at promoting fruitful dialogue between Muslims, society and Church. “Muslims in France are under pressure”, pointed out the writer M.Malek Chebel, intervening at a meeting held at the Catholic Institute in Paris in recent days. “They expect brotherhood from Christians; only then will they feel responsible and conduct themselves as friends”. According to Father Henri de la Hogue, of the Institute of Religious Sciences, the Moslem presence in France “obliges the Church to rethink its way of teaching and speaking. It confronts young Catholics with the question posed by their Moslem friends: ‘how can you assert that Jesus is the son of God?'”. A further challenge for the French Church is the welcome it gives to Muslims. Muslim families trust in the Church: according to a recent television survey, many families of Islamic faith prefer to send their own children to a Catholic school which “respects their identity and their diversity”; at the same time, Ramadan encourages Catholics to reflect on the visible signs of religious identity.
