Not with a law

On April 11 the law that bans the integral Islamic veil – the burqa and niqab – in all public places of France came into force. France is the first European country that has applied such a ban. The law – adopted by the French parliament on October 11 2010 at the end of a hot debate – involves less than two-thousand women, in a country which according to estimates has approximately four to six million Muslim citizens. The regulation prohibits concealing one’s face with a veil, a helmet, or any kind of mask in public areas that include streets, public gardens, train stations and shops. Transgressors are liable to fines. Men who will compel women to wear a veil from now onwards risk being sentenced to one year in prison and a 30thousand euro fine. The fine is doubled (two years in prison and 60thousand euro fine) if the victim is under-age. We addressed the issue with Msgr. Michel Santier, bishop of Créteil, President of the Council for Interreligious relations.Your Excellency, the law has come into force. What is your opinion?“I live in a city on the outskirts of Paris with many working-class neighbourhoods. I can assure you that very few women wearing the niqab are to be seen. The issue thus involves only a minority of women. Muslim authorities claim that the question isn’t linked to a religious custom. The niqab isn’t directly related to Muslim traditions. Rather, it’s a cultural tradition adopted by populations living in Iran or Afghanistan. It’s important to distinguish between those elements that belong to the faith tradition and those which instead are the result of cultural traditions”.The law is designed to support Muslim women and their independence…“The Church and French bishops are rather reticent about regulating such questions. In a recent interview with the daily ‘La Croix’, the president of the French Council for Islam Mohammed Moussaoui said that the law in question risks preventing women from going out of their homes, thus further contributing to their segregation, while the purpose of the law should be exactly the opposite. Women risk being compelled to remain at home. For sure French Islam doesn’t prescribe the integral veil. Indeed, women could be persuaded not to wear it. But I’m not sure that legislation could succeed in this objective. Instead, I fear it could contribute to further stigmatize Muslims despite all that has been said”.In what way?“We meet Muslims every day. They are the ones who run small shops. Their families are made up of men, women and children. There is an atmosphere of fear when it comes to Islam since the approach to this religious dimension is marked not by what we truly know about Muslim countries but by what we hear about these countries, about authoritarian regimes that impose political and religious lifestyles on the population. These are religious extremisms that have a dramatic consequence on the lives of Christian minorities in these Countries. Although this is not related with Islam but with fundamentalism the risk is that these spheres may be confused, with a negative repercussions on French Muslims, as if they were the ones to be blamed”.Could legislation promote the integration process?“It will take some time before Muslims become inclusive members of the French nation. Cardinal Lustiger used to say: integration processes are dynamics that require patience and that cannot be determined by will or by hasty decisions. Time is needed and the different spheres should not be overlapped. These questions are closely linked to the social conditions of French immigrants from Arab backgrounds, who are not all necessarily Muslim, while some of the migrants from Africa are. They live in poor neighbourhoods, and have to cope with precarious living conditions, unemployment, and are exposed to being involved in illicit trafficking. African migrants are taken for Maghrebins, religious factors are interlaced with social issues. Muslims are identified with illicit traffickers: this contributes to creating a climate of widespread fear. It must be said that Islam is not a monolithic reality and it’s marked by different currents, thus the word of an individual doesn’t represent their entire community. I think we should support the process undertaken by moderate Muslims. But it will take some time”.