THE SUNDAY MALIBU NEWSPAPER January 18, 2004, Page 1A

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" height=34 BGCOLOR="#EEEEEE" TEXT="#080000" background="0fa08333.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#262626" FACE="Stencil" ><A HREF="january_18__2004_headlines_january_18_2003.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="WALT KELLER RUNS AGAIN?!"><U>TODAY'S HEADLINES</U></A></FONT><B>       </B><B>THE SUNDAY MALIBU NEWSPAPER  JANUARY 18, 2004   Page 1A</B><B> <!-onMouseover Link CSS Script-© Dynamic Drive (www.dynamicdrive.com). For full source code, installation instructions, 100's more DHTML scripts, and Terms Of Use, visit dynamicdrive.com--><style></style>  </B></div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=391 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="01808593.jpg"> <div>  <!-onMouseover Link CSS Script-© Dynamic Drive (www.dynamicdrive.com). For full source code, installation instructions, 100's more DHTML scripts, and Terms Of Use, visit dynamicdrive.com--><style></style>  </div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="922" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#262626" BORDERCOLORDARK="#EEEEEE" FRAME="VOID" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFFFF > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 2305 WIDTH="460"><div> <B>France: A Religious Tug-O'-War</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> THE WAR OF THE VEILS</div> <div> (& YAMULKAS)</div> <bR> <div> <B>By Ras Babylon</B></div> <div> <B>Paris, France. January 18, 2004. Special to The Sunday Malibu Newspaper.</B><B>  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Muslims in the thousands protested in Paris, London and other cities around the world Saturday against the implementation of President Jacques Chirac's French government ban on religious symbols - including Muslims' veils & headscarves, and  Jewish yamulkas - from state schools.</B></div> <div> <B>The proposed ban, which has not yet been ratified by the French parliament, would take effect with the new school year in September 2004, and includes Sikh turbans, the Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crucifixes.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Ever since its announcement last December  "Chirac's Law" has provoked the entire Muslim world into denouncing the new law. A first pro-veil march in Paris last month rallied over 3000 protesters, many of them veiled young women.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>The thousands gathered in Paris' Place de la Republic Saturday, chanting and carrying placards, called on President Chirac's government to reject the ban. In London, at least 2000 demonstrators gathered in front of the French Embassy to oppose the ban on the Muslim hijab, or headscarf. "The hijab is a freedom, our right," claimed an organizer in front of the embassy. "It is not a symbol." Claims the hijab is a symbol of women's oppression were rejected by the woman in her speech, as she insisted that the law itself would oppress Muslim women. There was no mention made of the Taliban's oppression of Muslim women in Afghanistan by the enforcement of Veil-and-Hijab laws.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Gathering in other cities around the world (in addition to Nice, Lille (5000), Marseille (2000) and Toulouse in France); Amman, Jordan; Berlin, Germany; Istanbul, Turkey; and Beirut, Lebanon, the Muslim marches presents a difficult atmosphere for the French government to begin the debates on the new law in the next 10 days.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>President Jacques Chirac when he spoke in December 2003, recommended a law forbidding conspicuous religious symbols such as Muslim head scarves, Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses in public schools.</B></div> <div> <B>His law, which aims at preserving the principles of France's separation of church and state, while integrating the Muslim community, is directed at all three of the religions, but it is clear to even schoolchildren that the main purpose of "Chirac's Law" is to counter the surge in France of Islamic fundamentalism. It has had the opposite effect.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>The march in Paris, organized by a hard splinter Muslim group, The Muslim Party Of France (PMF), brought out those who denied having anything to do with the PMF organizers, but felt it necessary to march and "show their face." The splinter PMF is considered Anti-Zion because of its leader's stance in recent speeches. One French newspaper, Sud-Ouest, called PMF leader Mohamed Latrèche, a "notorious Anti-Zionist."</B></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="380" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=BOTTOM HEIGHT= 156 ><NOBR><div> "France, Don't Touch My Veil"</div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=BOTTOM><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="104be970.jpg" border=0 width="190" height="151" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <bR> <div> <B>France's main Muslim group, the Union Of Islamic Organizations In France (UOIF), which has become more vocal than in past years, has learned how to communicate to the world press. UOIF says such a law would "stigmatize" the country's estimated 6 million Muslims ( 8 percent of France's population ), erode religious freedom and amount to an "injustice." They called upon all Muslims to demonstrate, but in a calm way. Recognizing that they are also French citizens, the UOIF declared in a press communique: "The defense of our religious liberties does not mean we should turn our backs on the values which have founded our French Republic."</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Christian and Jewish religious leaders also have voiced opposition. France's Jewish community, about 1 percent of the population and Western Europe's largest, is also considering actions against the passing of the new law. Shepherded by Paris' top Jewish law firms, a legal challenge to "Chirac's Law" could work its way up to the country's highest court as a final test of France's separation of Church & State.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>France's 6 million-strong Muslim community is also the largest of its faith in Western Europe, and of the estimated 6 million Muslims, 10% are highly religious. This 10% are the danger, if their belief turns them into action against an "enemy" of their religion. They are the ones who believe you are born a Muslim, and you die a Muslim. There is no in-between, where one can reject their religion, opt out of it altogether, or become an Agnostic. Born a Muslim, die a Muslim, is the hold the Imams have on their religious populations, renewed every Friday, when they attend services at their local mosques. Kneeling 5 times a day towards Mecca, and praying, also helps push the pocket. There is no fear of death in this world, and the desire to be a martyr, which is looked upon as a heroic act, is sometimes played by the Imams like violin strings. Look for the acts of disobedience in France against this law to multiply & continue.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Dozens of girls have been expelled from French schools in the past two years, and this all began in 1989 when two 14-year-old schoolgirls refused to remove their head-coverings. Over the years, scores of Muslim girls have been expelled for keeping their scarves and/or veils on, dividing politicians in France on the issue, with Interior Minister Nicholas Sarkozy saying about Saturday's march:</B></div> <div> <B>"Demonstrating is not an answer; sitting down at the table and </B><B>discussing it, is."                                                           </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="page_1a__the_war_of_the_veils_m.htm" TITLE="THE SUNDAY MALIBU NEWSPAPER January 18, "><U>continues...</U></A></FONT></div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="460"><div> <B>Sarkozy has nevertheless attempted to distance himself from Chirac in case some of the negative stigma of "Chirac's Law" rubs off on his own Presidential ambitions. The diehards of a separate Church & State, led by a former minister, Jean Louis Debré, saying that there are already written rules to be guided by, such as the 1989 Council of State guidelines for dress in schools, are looking for a way to accomodate themselves to "Chirac's Law." Addressing itself to public schools and modes of dress, the Council's interdiction of all "visible" religious signs on clothing has been the guideline in recent years in French schools. A guideline some feel doesn't need to have the power of a law to back it up. There is also the fear that it may not be constitutional.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>The Anglican Archbishop, Dr. Rowan Williams, attacked "Chirac's Law," saying that President Jacques Chirac's support for a law banning religious symbols such as the Islamic hijab was unsurprising "in a secular environment that looks at religion not only with suspicion or incomprehension but with fear."  </B></div> <div> <B>Dr. Williams has been preoccupied with relations between Christians and Muslims over the past year, and is a leading critic of the US-led war on Iraq.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Politicians to the Right, such as Edouard Balladur & Alain Juppe, could abstain in any vote to ratify the new law. On the Left, the French Socialist Party's in a seesaw as to whether they will abstain during voting, or vote for the measure. The Socialist leader, Francois Hollande, thinks it is time to put this problem out of its misery, without announcing which way he'll jump. </B></div> <div> <B>The Socialist Party's parliamentary leader Jean-Marc Ayrault said the party was not satisfied with the draft text, labeling it not tough enough and saying it "opens the way for more disputes. We need a clear and simple symbol to put a stop to fundamentalist or sectarian excesses in public life,"Ayrault said.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>There are those who feel Chirac over-reacted in wishing to put his stamp on an untenable situation. Those against having a law insist the goal of "no veils, no scarves, no yamulkas, no turbans" could've been achieved without going so far, giving the veil, the headscarf and even the yamulka, much more importance than they should have.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Defending the veil as an instrument of religion, Muslim women marched in Toulouse under a poster which read: "My Religion, My Honor, My Veil." Religious Muslims have allowed the wearing of veils and scarves to take on a religious significance that was not intended by the Koran, state some Muslim scholars.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Arguing that the Koran should be read in the context of its chronological time in History, Jacqueline Chabbi, who teaches Medieval Islam at the University of Paris, said: "You have to keep in mind that the Koran addresses the problems of its day, more than to safeguard or direct one's actions in the future. The sacred texts relate the mentality of their times, and these texts are written to, and address the contemporaries of these ancient times, above all. The address is of a social nature, and not a religious one. In fact, the veil or scarf as an instrument of Islam doesn't appear anywhere in the Koran.</B></div> <div> <B>"You have to consider that the young Muslim today, confronted by a modern world where they feel they don't belong, derive their own truths from the Koran," she finished.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Modern interpretations of the Koran have helped the Muslim religion serve political masters in the recent past, such as the Taliban in Afghanistan and Osama Bin Ladin's Al Quaida. Says another historian of religion, Odon Vallet: "The veil is the Cold War of Religion, born of the Hot Wars of the Middle East</B><B>."</B></div> <div> <B>Sikhs are also expected to demonstrate in the runup to the law's ratification proceedings, and there are rumours of major Jewish groups, not to be outdone by the Muslims, mobilizing for a march of thousands in Paris.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Linking the demonstrations with the upcoming French regional elections, where it is feared the anti-immigrant National Front party could score well in some regions with a scare campaign linked to the growing number of veiled Muslim women in French cities, Paris' Dalil Bubakr, rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, in an interview with the daily Le Parisien: "I don't advise my brothers to frighten citizens two months before the regional elections." Dalil Bubakr is also the moderate-leaning chairman of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), a body Paris helped launch last year to bring France's five million Muslims more into the mainstream, has constantly preached moderation to his flock: "In the current climate of tense relations between Muslims and society in Europe in general and France in particular, we must play the democratic game."</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Posters in Marseille, where 2000 marched, and in Lille, where 5000 marched, proclaimed: "We are subject to God, and not to Man" and "The Veil Is A Divine Prescription." Speaking on French-German TV station ARTE, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a Deputy in the European Parliament, and a former "terrorist" in the 70s alongside Germany's Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer, believes "Chirac's Law" is an attempt, albeit in vain, to create a Muslim population in France that respects the concept of separating Church & State.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Perhaps in recognition of the unclear questions posed to French Muslims by "Chirac's Law," Minister Sarkozy made it clear in a recent press appearance that he has no wish to humiliate the Muslim people, cleverly distancing himself from a law his Interior Ministry will be called upon to enforce, if ratified. Just like in Corsica, amidst cries for the island's freedom and the killing of public officials, Sarkozy, married to a Corsican, is between a rock and a hard place. He knows, Nicolas Sarkozy, what many in Paris don't understand: In the Koran, and in today's modern Muslim society, there is no separation between Church & State.</B></div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="page_1a__the_war_of_the_veils_m.htm" TITLE="THE SUNDAY MALIBU NEWSPAPER January 18, "><U>back up</U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=55 BGCOLOR="#DDDDDD" TEXT="#080000"> <div>  <!-onMouseover Link CSS Script-© Dynamic Drive (www.dynamicdrive.com). 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