Date Posted: Monday, August 30, 2004

French Muslim women demonstrate against headscarf ban law

Muslim immigrants to France came mainly from Algeria until the early sixties, which was still a French colony at that time. French employers preferred workers from Southern European countries, but the Algerian men mostly kept on crossing the Mediterranean. As France traditionally had no coordinated labor immigration policy, workers kept on coming from other North African countries such as Morocco and Tunisia as well.

In response to economic periods of depression such as in 1974, the border controls were rapidly tightened, but in the late eighties, the government had to admit the failure of organized labor immigration. The highest numbers of Muslim immigrants in France originate from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia with two other substantial groups besides them, Muslims from Sub-Saharan West Africa and Turks. France had signed a labor agreement with the Turkish government in 1966, but only the early seventies saw a substantial influx of Turks into France.

Statistics show Muslims in France count between about 5 and 6 million, which is about 10 to 12% of the French population. That is the highest percentage of Muslims in a Western European country.

For a long time, the French citizenship law declared every individual born on French territory a French citizen. Therefore, the children of Muslim immigrants (in most cases also Muslims) have to be added to the estimates. Most Muslims in France live in and around industrial centers such as Paris, Marseilles, Lyons and Lille. As many Muslims are part of the unskilled or semi-skilled work force in France, they tend to live in the suburbs where the living conditions are rather difficult and the crime rates high.

The concentration of Muslims and problems in these areas led to the denomination of these areas as "Suburbs of Islam." As more and younger Muslims not only realize the discrimination and disadvantage in the system (especially for education and employment) the protest movements increasingly base their critique on a renewed Muslim identity. A significant number of Muslim immigrants are to be found in the professions and important positions.

As one of its basic principles of state, France has the “Laicite” system (a total separation between state and religion). The French Muslim community counts many associations and organizations officially registered. An estimated number of 1500 mosques were reported according to many French Muslim associations.

Organizations of Muslims are organized mainly according to national groups. This is especially characteristic of the ones operating on a countrywide level. Some of them have a clearly Muslim agenda, whereas others just support mosque building and community programs as part of their duty for the respective ethnic community. There are the Algerian organizations, Turkish and Moroccan ones often related to different political movements and parties in the country of origin. France has the largest presence of Sufi orders in Western Europe, with groups such as the

The teaching of Arabic and Qur'an has been established in mosques and community centers outside of the state school system. Several conflicts about Muslim girls wearing headscarves in school and physical education classes in particular arose in the late eighties. These conflicts reached their high point with the 'Hijab affair' in 2004. The prevention of Muslim students from entering their school caused protest from Muslim youth groups as well as anti-discrimination groups in France. This led to a number of big demonstrations and fierce discussions in the media.

By some 'experts,' it was styled into the Islamic danger rising in France. The Muslim community, especially the young people, took the incident as a chance to express growing frustration about cultural and religious marginalization and discrimination in French society. A growth of right wing movements in some parts of France was related to xenophobic and discriminating slogans against Muslims of these areas, shows that there is increasing tension and a development that disintegrates French society.