French Judge Rules: Jewish and Muslim Students Must Have Non-pork Option for School Lunch -

A French court ruled that schools should provide an alternative to lunches containing pork for Muslim and Jewish students.

The decision on Monday came after the Muslim Legal Defense League sued the local authority at Chalon-sur-Saône in Burgundy, challenging its 2015 decision to stop providing a non-pork alternative in its school cafeterias.

The Muslim Legal Defense League had called the decision to stop providing a pork alternative “illegal, discriminatory and a violation of the freedom of conscience and religion.”

The judge said he made the ruling because, due to the lack of an alternative, many local Muslim children went without lunch, which is “not in keeping with the spirit of the international convention on the rights of children” and not “in the interests of the children.”

He said religion was not a consideration. French National Front party leader Marine Le Pen said in a 2014 interview that non-pork options for Jewish and Muslim students will no longer be offered in school menus in the 11 towns where France’s far-right National Front party won local elections.