Muslim Schools Under Threat in France
France is known for its strict separation of religion and state, encapsulated in the principle of laïcité. This principle sets the foundation for public schools, which are prohibited from offering religious education or endorsing any religion. To impart religious education, private schools have been established in the country. France has a tradition of Catholic, Protestant and Jewish schools which allow religious expression within the constraints of lay principles broadly excluding religion from public life. The first Muslim private school was opened in 2001 (https://theconversation.com/muslim-schools-are-allies-in-frances-fight-against-radicalization-not-the-cause-149802). As of 2020, there were 70 such Muslim private schools in the country (https://rmc.bfmtv.com/actualites/societe/education/ecoles-musulmanes-en-france-a-quoi-ressemblent-ces-etablissements_AV-202010020494.html). According to the National Federation for Muslim Education (FNEM) there are a total of 127 Muslims schools in France as of 2023 (https://www.arabnews.com/node/2522636/world). Muslim schools in the country are under serious threat especially after the application of the 2021 anti-separatism law, which ostensibly targets the Muslim minority in the country (https://www.euro-islam.info/2021/08/04/enforcing-the-french-law-against-islamic-separatism-consequences-on-religious-freedom/, https://www.euro-islam.info/key-issues/education/) The most famous Muslim school in the country, Averroes Lycee’s state funding has been revoked which has left students and teachers in a lull while the fate of rest of the Muslim schools in the country now seem to also be under threat. In December 2023, local authorities of the French Ministry of the Interior confirmed a decision to revoke its state funding. Authorities cited “serious breaches of the fundamental principles of the Republic”, raised concerns over certain texts in religious education classes, and accused administrators of opaque financial management, among various alleged infractions (https://scroll.in/article/1062843/why-frances-decision-to-revoke-funding-to-acclaimed-muslim-high-school-reflects-a-common-paradox, https://www.la-croix.com/dissensions-autour-du-lycee-musulman-averroes-prive-de-subventions-publiques-20231211).
Muslim Schools: the New Comers to French Private Education
In France, the governing secularizing concept of laïcité in public schools means that private institutions are the only option for communities seeking Islamic education programs. In addition to laïcité, the debate over the hijab further developed a demand for the establishment of state-approved private Islamic schools. The lack of representative bodies capable of negotiating for state funding, lack of long-standing and established schools, lack of suitable instructors, and the current political climate surrounding Islam in France have all been cited as reasons government funding remains difficult to obtain. Because so many low-income Muslim families are unable to cover the full cost of tuition and fees, religious education of young Muslims is generally provided independently outside of school hours either by the family at home or by associations and mosques in the framework of Koranic courses. The few existing private Islamic institutions include one school on the island of Réunion (the only institution under contract of association), established several decades ago; two in the northeast Paris suburb of Aubervilliers, established in 2001; Averroes Lycee in Lille, established in 2003, and Lyon’s lycée college Al Kindi, established in March 2007 (https://www.euro-islam.info/key-issues/education/#).
In her 2019 book, Islamic Schools in France: Minority Integration and Separatism in Western Society (Palgrave McMillan) Carine Bourget estimates that by 2008, around 17% of students attending one of France’s 8,800 private schools were Muslims. All but 2% of these were schools under contract with the state, and therefore recipient of public subsidies. There were 8,000 Catholic schools, attended by two million pupils. The remainder included 256 Jewish schools, with 30,000 pupils, and five Muslim establishments, teaching 600 children. Until 2008, only four Muslim schools were entitled to state subsidies[1] (https://scholarworks.iu.edu/iupjournals/index.php/jems/article/download/5417/428/23975). While there has been a subsequent growth in the number of Muslim schools obtaining state contract remains difficult (https://www.arabnews.com/node/2522636/world). By 2017, according to the ministry of education, there were 1,192 students in ten Muslim schools under state contract (0.06% of a total of two million students) and 6,586 students in 64 Muslim schools without state contract. (https://scholarworks.iu.edu/iupjournals/index.php/jems/article/download/5417/428/23975)
According to The National Federation for Muslim Education (FNEM) there are a total of 127 Muslims schools in France as of 2023 (https://www.arabnews.com/node/2522636/world). Of these, only ten benefit from state funding. By contrast, 7,045 Catholic schools are funded (https://www.arabnews.com/node/2522636/world) out of a total of 7,220 catholic. Overall, private education under contract is marked by the predominance of Catholic schools which constitute 96% of the workforce (https://www.vie-publique.fr/files/rapport/pdf/289657.pdf).
Averroes Lycee: Pioneer of Muslim Education in France
The first private Muslim school, Averroes Lycée (high school) was established in 2003 in the northern city of Lille with just 11 students at the time. Named after the 12th century Muslim philosopher, Ibn Rushd, this school won many accolades in a short span of time. It was ranked France’s top high school in 2013 and in 2023 had a 95% baccalaureate pass rate (https://hyphenonline.com/2024/06/19/why-frances-leading-muslim-high-school-faces-closure-lycee-averroes/). In 2008, it came under contract with the State therefore becoming the first Muslim school receiving state funding (https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/hauts-de-france/2013/03/27/lille-le-lycee-musulman-averroes-fier-de-sa-1ere-place-au-classement-des-lycees-224309.html) (https://theconversation.com/frances-biggest-muslim-school-went-from-accolades-to-defunding-showing-a-key-paradox-in-how-the-country-treats-islam-220725). In 2013, it was named the best high school in France, according to the Parisien newspaper’s rankings, based on the high school results indicator provided by the Ministry of National Education (https://www.la-croix.com/Urbi-et-Orbi/Actualite/France/Le-lycee-musulman-Averroes-de-Lille-meilleur-lycee-de-France-2013-03-28-926203). In 2023, the regional newspaper La Voix du Nord” established a regional ranking of high schools based on data published by the National Education in which Averroes high school, on its twentieth anniversary climbed to second place (96%). The establishment, directed since its creation by Éric Dufour[2] has a baccalaureate success rate of 98% and its honors rate is73% (https://www.lavoixdunord.fr/1309270/article/2023-03-29/lille-averroes-et-faidherbe-dans-le-top-3-des-lycees-de-la-region).
Controversies Surrounding the School
In 2015, philosophy teacher of Algerian descent at Averroes high school, Sofiane Zitouni wrote in left-leaning national newspaper Liberation that the high school was a hotbed of “anti-Semitism, sectarianism and insidious Islamism”. He declared that he could no longer tolerate the school’s alleged contradictions with France’s strictly secular “Republican values”. In his view “Averroès Lycée is a Muslim territory that is being funded by the state. “It promotes a vision of Islam that is nothing other than Islamism. And it is doing it in an underhand and hidden way in order to maintain its [80 percent] state funding.” (https://www.france24.com/en/20150206-teacher-quits-french-muslim-school-over-insidious-islamism)
After these claims, in an interview on France 24, the school’s director, El Hassane Oufker, said that “the staff and student body were “hugely shocked and upset” by Zitouni’s comments and that he would be suing him for defamation (https://www.france24.com/en/20150206-teacher-quits-french-muslim-school-over-insidious-islamism).The entire teaching staff subsequently signed a joint communiqué in which they “strongly condemn the slanderous lies” of their former colleague Zitouni (https://www.france24.com/en/20150206-teacher-quits-french-muslim-school-over-insidious-islamism).
In 2019 controversies surrounding the school’s fundings grew stronger. French journalists and local politicians drew attention to Averroes over 850,000 euro grant from the Qatar charity foundation, which raised questions about possible links between members of the school’s board and proponents of political Islam in France. The same year, the school’s Qatari loans were mentioned in a book written by Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot in 2020, Qatar Papers: How Doha Finances the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe (Chesnot, C. and Malbrunot, G., 2020. Qatar Papers: How Doha finances the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe. Averroes & Cie.) which suggested the Qatar Charity was involved in proselytizing Salafism in France. Later in 2020, the inspection by the French Ministry of education found the grant to be legal. But politicians in the Lille region continued a campaign to limit or overturn the school’s state support(https://www.leparisien.fr/societe/lycee-musulman-averroes-a-lille-la-region-sommee-de-verser-500-000-euros-a-letablissement-12-10-2022-LMTHICKKVNCR7PXBLWSUY4D6JQ.php).
In October 2023 Georges-François Leclerc, the government’s representative in the Nord region, or prefect decided to stop state funding to the Averroes lycee, citing several concerns. The first one was the inclusion on a teachers’ reading list of the annotated edition of the Forty Hadiths of Imam an-Nawawî — which calls for the death penalty for apostasy. The second culprit was two donations made in 2014, one for €850,000 from the NGO Qatar Charity and a second for €300,000 from the Arab League. The head of the school insisted the incriminated book was never on the school premises nor used by teachers. He also argued that both donations, used to finance the purchase of a school building, were legal and reported to the Ministry of Education authorities. Nonetheless, in December 2023, the French Ministry of Interior confirmed the decision to revoke the lycee Averroes state funding (https://hyphenonline.com/2024/06/19/why-frances-leading-muslim-high-school-faces-closure-lycee-averroes/).
The Impact of the State Funding Revocation:
Starting September 2024, the school has lost all state funding and has to find other means to pay its 37 teachers. In the short term, its fees — about €1,500 a year — have to be doubled. This is a significant increase for a school where more than 61% of the 473 students come from low-income families. Many French public intellectuals condemned the state decision, calling it it a politically motivated act. (https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/hauts-de-france/nord-0/lille/lycee-musulman-averroes-syndicats-politiques-directeur-de-grande-ecole-tour-d-horizon-des-soutiens-affiches-2884994.html). According to Dufour, Averroès is held to different standards from other French faith schools operating under state contracts. He believes the decision to remove state funding is a political response to the challenge posed to mainstream parties by the far-right movement(https://hyphenonline.com/2024/06/19/why-frances-leading-muslim-high-school-faces-closure-lycee-averroes/).
Laws Threatening Islamic Education
Since 2021 and the adoption of the Anti- Separatism Bill, Muslim education has become a major political target on the ground that it contributes to the dissemination of values contrary to French laicite. (https://www.euro-islam.info/2023/11/28/french-policies-banning-hijabs-and-abayas-draw-outrage-at-home-and-abroad/, https://www.euro-islam.info/2023/07/12/hijab-ban-in-french-football-a-battle-of-religious-freedom-and-secularism/, , https://www.euro-islam.info/2022/06/29/french-republican-values-threatened-by-the-burkini-is-the-june-21-ruling-a-turning-point/, https://www.euro-islam.info/2016/10/17/anger-muslim-women-denied-service-french-restaurant/)
For this reason, all home schooling needs to be authorized by the state rather than be self-declared, starting from the 2024/2025 school year on the ground that a lot of Muslim children, especially girls, were being sent to underground radical schools where, according to Macron, “their education consists of prayers and certain classes (https://www.elysee.fr/en/emmanuel-macron/2020/10/02/fight-against-separatism-the-republic-in-action-speech-by-emmanuel-macron-president-of-the-republic-on-the-fight-against-separatism). “In a number of cases, it (homeschooling) conceals clandestine Salafist structures. We want to face up to this sociological reality. That’s why we will set up a homeschooling authorization system,” education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer explained (https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2021/02/16/here-s-what-you-need-to-know-about-france-s-controversial-separatism-law).
From this perspective, the revocation of the Lycee Averroes state funding is another tightening of the state control of the religious activities of the French Muslim population.
References
[1] https://scholarworks.iu.edu/iupjournals/index.php/jems/article/download/5417/428/23975 (pp. xviii–xix)
[2] 56- year- old, Eric Dufour who taught in private Catholic schools before converting to Islam 20 years ago, joined the school as a teacher in 2007, becoming its head in 2022.
