• The Ministry of the Interior has asked schools in Toulouse to quantify the number of students absent on the day of Eid al-Fitr. If the Interior has acknowledged the facts, Sonia Backès, the Secretary of State for Citizenship has admitted "a clumsiness".
  • Many associations have denounced a "religious and Islamophobic file".
  • The Great Mosque of Paris is now asking for "clarification" on the circumstances of such a request.

The local case still does not pass and takes a new turn. After the denunciation of this request by many associations that denounce a religious file, like SOS Racism, the Great Mosque of Paris (GMP) asked Tuesday the public authorities "clarifications" on "the circumstances that led several school heads to receive a request for evaluation of the rate" of absence of students on April 21, End day of Ramadan.

Police officers asked school heads in Toulouse by email to tell them the number of students absent on the day of Eid al-Fitr. A request that has aroused the indignation of the educational, trade union and Muslim communities.

'An abnormal situation'

"These worrying facts lead the Great Mosque of Paris to urge the public authorities to provide the fullest clarification on this abnormal situation," wrote its rector, Chems-eddine Hafiz, in a statement, judging that "the responses provided (...) seem insufficient."

The Ministry of the Interior, through the voice of the Secretary of State for Citizenship, Sonia Backès, admitted Sunday to have requested an "assessment of the rate of absenteeism observed on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr" but denied any "carding".

"This request for an assessment infringes on religious freedom and once again casts aspersions on Muslims in France," Hafiz said, recalling that a regulatory system gives students the opportunity to be absent on the occasion of their religious holidays.

"A follow-up throughout the national territory of the course of religious festivals"

Questioned Tuesday at the National Assembly, during the session of current affairs in the government, by the deputy (LFI) François Piquemal (Haute-Garonne) then by the ecologist deputy Sabrina Sebaihi (Hauts-de-Seine), Ms. Backès denied any "filing of students according to their religious affiliation in the school of the Republic".

However, "yes, there is a monitoring, throughout the national territory, of the general conduct of religious holidays in the public sphere," she added. Sonia Backès acknowledged a clumsiness: "Yes, the request may have been formulated in an awkward way. But no, asking for general information about the impact of religious holidays does not mean any aggressive intentions towards any religion," she said.

  • Society
  • Toulouse
  • Haute-Garonne
  • Occitania
  • Midi-Pyrénées
  • Religion
  • Islam
  • Right
  • Secularism
  • Education