“French Muslims Find Haven in Catholic Schools”

“There is respect for our religion here,” said Nadia Oualane, a fourteen year old student of Algerian descent who wears her hair hidden under a black head scarf. “In the public school,” she added, “I would not be allowed to wear a veil.” The Article “French Muslims Find Haven in Catholic Schools” that was published on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 shows us, the reader, that this young girl’s statement is an accurate one. The article discusses how in the nation of France, which has only four Muslim schools, some of the country’s 8,847 Roman Catholic schools have become refuges for the youth of Muslims residing in nation, who are seeking what an overburdened, secularist public sector often lacks. Like spirituality, an environment in which good manners count alongside mathematics, and higher academic standards that are not available in their Muslim schools or local public schools. There are no accurate national statistics for this information, but many Muslim and Catholic educators estimate that Muslim students now make up more than ten percent of the two million students makeup of Catholic schools in the nation. The silent migration of Muslims students to private Catholic schools highlights how hard it has become for state supported public schools, long France’s tool for integration, to keep their promise of equal opportunity. This silent migration of Muslims students to private Catholic schools is a result of Catholic schools taking steps to accommodate different faiths. One school in the city of Dijon even allows Muslim students to use the chapel for Ramadan prayers. Catholic schools are also free to allow girls to wear head scarves. Many honor the national ban on head scarves, but several, which include the Catholic school of St. Mauront, tolerate a discreet covering. Imam Soheib Bencheikh, a former grand mufti in Marseille and founder of its Higher Institute of Islamic Studies, said that “It’s ironic,” he said, “but today the Catholic Church is more tolerant of — and knowledgeable about — Islam than the French state.”

My opinion of the Article “French Muslims Find Haven in Catholic Schools” is that it is about time that France, as a nation, realizes that its nation is now home to around five million Muslims, Western Europe’s largest such community, and it’s about time the nation accepts them as fellow citizens with equal rights to higher spirituality, academic standards of education and life. Mr. Chamoux, a slow-moving, jovial man, said it best “If I banned the head scarf, half the girls wouldn’t go to school at all.” He also added that “I prefer to have them here, talk to them and tell them that they have a choice. Many actually take it off after a while. My goal is that by the time they graduate they have made a conscious choice, one way or the other.” So it shouldn’t matter what religion a person is in the world education, just as long as the person is not forcing their religion upon another student.

Article written by: Katrin Bennhold

The New York Times

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Article on page A6 of the New York edition.