Posted on 10/20/2004 12:41:51 PM PDT by Michael Goldsberry
PARIS - Two Muslim girls were expelled Wednesday from high school for refusing to remove their head scarf - the fourth such expulsions in two days as officials began taking action against those who defy a new law banning conspicuous religious apparel in public schools.
A 17-year-old girl was forced out of school in the eastern city of Mulhouse following a disciplinary hearing, said Gilles-Jean Klein, spokesman for the Strasbourg school district. Another girl was expelled from a school in the town of Flers in the western Normandy region, according to the Caen school district.
Two other girls, 12 and 13, were forced out of school Tuesday in Mulhouse. A fifth student, also in Mulhouse, risked expulsion later Wednesday, Klein said. Six more students could face a similar fate before the week was up, the Education Ministry said.
At the start of the week, there were 72 cases of students who risk expulsion for refusing to remove conspicuous religious signs or apparel - 17 in the Strasbourg area. Most are Muslim girls who wear Islamic head scarves. However, some Sikh school boys who refuse to remove turbans are among the 72.
France has proceeded cautiously with the new law, especially since two French journalists were kidnapped in Iraq (news - web sites), purportedly by the Islamic Army of Iraq. The group has demanded that the new law be lifted before it would release Christian Chesnot and Christian Malbrunot, who disappeared Aug. 20.
However, this week schools began convening hearings to decide difficult cases before the All Saints Day vacation period, which ends after the Nov. 1 Roman Catholic holiday.
Those expelled have the right to appeal their cases to the head of the academy. If they are under 16 - the legal age for leaving school - the expelled students must continue their education at a private school, by correspondence or another means, Klein said.
Some 600 cases of defiance of the law were counted at the start of the school year in September, but most have been resolved through dialogue - as called for in the law, Education Minister Francois Fillon said Tuesday.
The law, passed in March but first applied this fall, bans conspicuous religious signs and apparel, including Muslim head scarves, Jewish skull caps and large Christian crosses.
The small Sikh community in France, estimated at 6,000 people, has learned that turbans also can pose a problem. Three Sikhs at a school in Bobigny, outside Paris, have been kept out of class since September.
In the first court case concerning the law, Sikh leaders asked an administrative court to force the Louise-Michel school to convene a disciplinary council or allow the boys in class. A ruling is expected Friday.
The law is intended to uphold France's constitutionally guaranteed principle of secularism, considered undermined by a growing number of Muslim girls wearing head scarves in public school classrooms.
Authorities have also said they view the law as a way to fight rising Muslim fundamentalism in France and to protect the rights of women, widely viewed here as submissive to men if they wear head scarves.
Do what? I don't like the Muslim religion any more than anyone else, but they should be able to wear whatever their religion tells them to. Within reason.
so, which happens first in France..a suiced bomber, or a beheading?
Unfortunately, their religion usually tells them to wear a bomb.
So go to a private school and shut the hell up.
If they don't like it, they can go right back where they came from. Why should then majority heed the pittance of the minority?
Generally,but there are plenty of Muslims that have no intention of killing Americans and just want to wear a scarf, get beaten by their husbands and pray five times a day facing Meca.
First time I have ever seen the French stand up to anybody without surrendering.
Of course, it is a bunch of school girls, but at least its a start.
Because that is what our county, at least, is all about. You can't have true religious liberty without a profound respect for minority rights.
Most Americans take their religious liberty for granted. But public opinion no longer supports the basic premise behind religious liberty: that in matters of conscience, the majority has no power.
Both Conservatives and liberals alike seem all-too-willing to subject religion to majority vote. I personally am committed to the truly historic Protestant Principle of religious freedom: that we are all responsible, individually to God, for our religious beliefs and worship, that government must stay out of it.
This is what made our country a beacon of religious tolerance and freedom all over the world. This love of religous liberty is what caused the founding of our great nation.
Wow,you always watch out for the "tyranny of the majority".
We're talking about France.
Prediction: Capture and beheading stats for native Frenchman are about to spike upwards...
France? What's that... a skin condition, or one of those really strange pastel colors?
Yes, a country with maybe 10% of the brainpower of the USA persecuting a growing religious minority (Muslims) which WILL grow to be a majority and then turn the tables on their French hosts. Then it will be way to late for the French to do anything but surrender and start calling upon Allah, facing Mecca 5 times per day, and speaking Arabic.
Our country, based on comments like your about how the majority shouldn't have to respect the rights of minorities, will end up acting out in a way not to dissimilar to France in the not too distant future.
However, many, many people would dearly love to see the American government do this or worse to Muslims in the United States.
Hmm. Maybe the frenchy muslims will build some madrasas (sp?) to educate their next generation. That will work well.
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