16th September 2011
France Bans Praying As Anti-Muslim Crackdown Grows
Mark Hanson
France is leading the way in the European crackdown on religious practices, especially the practices of the Muslim community.
In the latest move, the French Interior Minister, Claude Gueant, has outlawed prayers on the streets of Paris in response to far-right calls to move against the supposed “Islamification” of the secularist State of France.
The ban, which seems likely to spread to other French cities, especially the southern cities of Nice and Marseilles, has been brought in specifically to deal with a problem in the Goutte d'Or district of the capital whereby because of insufficient space within Mosques Muslim worshippers have been using the streets outside to say their prayers. Marseilles and Nice are said to suffer from similar “problems”.
In April France became the first European country to ban the Islamic veil, though Holland and Belgium have since followed suit.
The far-right is growing in Europe, and the current incarnation of the hateful ideology is particularly focussed on the supposed threat from Muslims to the “Christian” nature of Europe, although the appropriation of the name “Christian” is used lightly, with the main thrust of sentiment being secular, opposing Christian expression in the public sphere also.
It is unclear whether the ban on street prayers will extend to Christian groups. Evangelical Christianity is regarded with suspicion in secularist France, and street evangelism is not as free as it is in the UK. Gueant has reportedly said, however, that Catholic gatherings in the streets should not be treated in the same manner as Muslim prayers.
Whether or not Christian expression is also banned, Rabel, as a Christian liberties organisation, decries the crackdown on Muslim expression and the continuing encroachment of State control and restrictions on religious freedom. There have been some recent improvements, and two UK cases are due to be heard by the European Court of Human Rights soon, yet the general trend throughout the European Union has been increasingly restrictive.
Romanism (Catholicism), due to its traditional power base in Europe, has begun to fight for its own position with some success, and is fairly effectively arguing for its role as a quasi-official religion in Europe, yet moves against other religions and evangelical Christianity are continuing. At present France, which prides itself on its secularist credentials, is leading the fight, and Islam, seen as “foreign” and fundamentalist, is the primary victim.
