Will the French back off at a roar from Muslims? We shall see. That roar came Friday: “Thousands of Muslim worshipers shouted ‘Death to France!’ during weekly prayers here Friday in response to a sermon denouncing a proposal to prohibit Muslim schoolgirls in France from wearing head scarves.” This from AFP, with thanks to filtrat.
“Ayatollah Ahmad Janati called on Islamic countries to ‘threaten France with canceling contracts and to reconsider their relations with France’ over the issue.
Last month, a committee of French experts recommended banning ‘conspicuous’ religious insignia from state schools, which are secular. This would include the hijab, or head scarf, skullcaps and large crucifixes.
“In a speech later, President Jacques Chirac of France came out in favor of the ban, which he wants written into law by the start of the next school year. But Janati assured worshipers that all that was necessary was ‘a roar from Muslims, and the French would back off.’ He called on the French authorities to ‘let Muslim women express their freedom and carry out their religious obligations.'”
Hmm. The ban may not be the right course of action, but Janati is hypocritical in the extreme to start talking about religious freedom. Can non-Muslims — particularly Bahais — carry out their religious obligations freely in Iran?
“His comments were welcomed by shouts of ‘Death to France!’
“Since Chirac spoke in favor of the ban on Dec. 17, Arab and Muslim countries have been voicing outrage, even if a few intellectuals dispute claims that Muslim women are bound by duty to wear the head scarf.
“Numerous Iranian officials, including President Mohammad Khatami and nearly 200 members of Parliament, have already called on the French authorities to reject the ban. Khatami said last week that the ‘hijab is a religious necessity and its restriction is a sign of a kind of extreme nationalistic tendency.’
“On Monday, 150 students, including women in the head-to-foot chador, protested in front of the French Embassy in Tehran shouting ‘Death to France!’ and ‘Death to Chirac the Zionist!'”
Chirac the Zionist. The ban of the kippa doesn’t seem to have impressed them, eh? Of course, I encountered this yesterday on CSpan: anyone who challenges radical Muslims on any front must be ipso facto a Zionist Jew. These Muslims should wake up to the fact that opposition to the Sharia and its institutionalized discrimination against non-Muslims and women has a much broader base.