A group gathered in front of the French Embassy protests against the ban on abaya (long dress) in schools in France in Vienna, Austria on September 16, 2023

French policies banning Hijabs and Abayas draw outrage at home and abroad

France’s Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera announced on 3rd September 2023  on France 3 that athletes representing France will be barred from wearing hijabs or other religious symbols while competing at the upcoming 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.1  The minister stated that the ban upholds France’s principle of “strict secularism” or  “la laïcité,” in sports and…

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French Preacher Expulsion: What it means for Religious Freedom

On Tuesday 30th August, The Council of State (France’s highest administrative court) has agreed to the expulsion of Imam Hassan Iquioussen to Morocco. Citing the ruling by the Council, Gérald Darmanin (Interior Minister) tweeted that Hassan Iquioussen “will be expelled from the national territory” in what he considers to be “a great victory for the…

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US Secretary of State urges The UK and France to let jihadis return

At the summit of the international coalition against ISIS (an 83-nation coalition), held in Rome on June 28th, US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken stated “The United States continues to urge countries – including coalition partners – to repatriate, rehabilitate and, where applicable, prosecute its citizens“1. According to the Guardian, these remarks were primarily…

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Veiled Electoral Candidate not Welcome on French Presidential Majority List

The departmental elections ( one of the local levels of state administration ) will take place in the summer of 2021. Two local candidates of the presidential majority have faced online backlash after a member of the extreme-right party Rassemblement National (RN) vehemently criticized the presence of a veiled woman as second substitute on the…

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Islamo-leftism versus Islamophobia : The ideological polarization of French Academia

After the attacks on “Islamo-leftism” in French University , comes the fight against Islamophobic scholars. On March 4 2021, two professors of the Political Science Institute of Grenoble were targeted by accusations of “Islamophobia” and “fascism” . The professors’ names were anonymously posted at the main entrance of the Institute with the slogans “fascists are…

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