French Inside Minister Gerald Darmanin. (Photograph: Sameer Al-Doumy / AFP)
- France’s inside ministry mentioned on Sunday that it had ordered “an analysis of the extent of absenteeism recorded on the event of Eid al-Fitr”.
- Commerce unions and anti-racism teams have criticised this transfer.
- Within the metropolis of Toulouse, police requested the heads of native faculties to report the variety of absent youngsters on 21 April.
Commerce unions and anti-racism teams have criticised an initiative by the French inside ministry to examine on the variety of Muslim youngsters who skipped faculty final month to have a good time Eid al-Fitr.
The pageant, which concludes the holy month of Ramadan, is noticed as a vacation in Muslim-majority nations and fell on Friday, 21 April, for many believers this yr.
France’s inside ministry mentioned on Sunday that it had ordered “an analysis of the extent of absenteeism recorded on the event of Eid al-Fitr”.
The ministry “recurrently research the influence of some spiritual festivals on the workings of public providers, and notably within the instructional sector”, mentioned a press release from junior minister Sonia Backes.
Within the metropolis of Toulouse, police requested the heads of native faculties to report the variety of absent youngsters on 21 April, resulting in accusations that authorities have been making a registry -which was denied by Backes.
The nation’s largest lecturers’ union, the FSU, mentioned in a press release addressed to Inside Minister Gerald Darmanin on Monday that it “harshly denounces this operation”.
It mentioned:
Making an attempt to create statistics by safety forces on spiritual beliefs and their observance or not, above all in a college setting, goes towards the essential ideas of secularism and basic rights.
The smaller CGT Educ’ation union referred to as it a “scandalous and harmful stigmatisation”.
Utilizing police to hold out the checks was “significantly surprising as a result of it associates the observance of the Islamic faith to a problem of safety”, the anti-racism group SOS Racisme mentioned.
France has a strict type of secularism that seeks to separate the state and its varied branches from faith and spiritual our bodies, whereas guaranteeing the liberty to worship to all.
Gathering details about ethnicity or spiritual beliefs can be typically prohibited in France beneath the nation’s anti-discrimination legal guidelines.
Owing to the nation’s Catholic heritage, main Christian festivals reminiscent of Christmas or Easter are noticed as public holidays in France when faculties are closed.
