DAR AL HARB - FRANCE: INFIDEL FIRED FOR APPOSING MOSLEMS

France fires official for opposing Muslim school
By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor

PARIS (Reuters) - France fired a top regional education official on Wednesday for vigorously opposing a new Muslim school and publicly complaining about pressure from Paris to stop obstructing its opening.

The Al-Kindi high school, in a suburb of Lyon in eastern France, finally admitted its first 22 pupils on March 5 after an eight-month struggle with school board head Alain Morvan that ended only when Paris intervened to permit it to open.

Morvan's stubborn campaign became a sore point for French Muslims who accused him of Islamophobia for refusing them the right to launch a faith school although about one-fifth of all high schools in France are private, mostly Catholic.

In rejecting three requests to open the school, Morvan accused its founders of being "fundamentalists" and said he would sign refusals to open it "down to the last drop of ink."

Government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope said Morvan was replaced because "his behaviour was not that of a senior official, whose task is to carry out government policy".

Al-Kindi is the third Muslim school in France, whose five million Muslims make up eight percent of the population. It only took in 22 sixth-grade pupils, because it opened halfway through the school year, but expects about 150 in September.

Several other Muslim groups around the country, spurred into action by France's 2004 ban on Islamic headscarves in state schools, have also begun planning to open their own schools.

...


Pertinent Links:

1) France fires official for opposing Muslim school