French National Assembly Adopts Anti-Radicalism Bill

The chamber of the National Assembly where French deputies voted to adopt a bill to combat religious extremism. (Wikimedia Commons)

The French National Assembly passed a bill aimed at combating religious extremism on February 16. 347 members voted for it, and 151 members voted against it. The bill targets fears stemming from recent terrorist attacks in France.

With a recent European migration crisis and refugee influx from the Middle East, there has been a rise in Islamic terrorist attacks targeting France. These attacks included the Charlie Hebdo shooting in January 2015, the November Terrorist Attacks in 2015, and, most recently, the murder of Samuel Paty, a professor who showed offensive cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a free speech class in October 2020.

The bill, titled “Confronting the Respect for the Principles of the Republic,” builds off of France’s policy of “laïcité,” or, “secularism,” which commenced under the law of 1905 that established the separation of church and state. 

Specifically, the bill aims to increase oversight of mosques, schools, and sports clubs in order to protect French citizens from religious extremism and to further promote national values within the populace. One measure includes ensuring that mosques are not run by those with foreign interests nor those who have ties to domestic extremist parties. Another states that children will begin attending regular school at the age of three in order to combat home-grown fringe ideologies, and yet another ensures that police officers and prison employees swear to respect France’s values and constitution. 

Though the bill does not explicitly use the words “Muslims” or “Islam,” some Muslim citizens and left-wing lawmakers believe that the bill promotes anti-Islamic sentiment. During the two weeks of debate that preceded the final vote on the Assembly floor, Adrien Quatennens, an MP who belongs to the democratic-socialist party “La France Insoumise,” suggested that when discussing religious extremism, the right-wing parties only speak about the veil. This demonstrates that the French government disproportionately concentrates on Muslims when debating the policy of secularism. However, French Prime Minister Jean Castex, the leader of the party whose majority led to the adoption of this bill, stressed that the law is not “against the Muslim religion in particular.” Instead, he continued, “It is a law of emancipation in the face of religious fanaticism.”

Some critics believe the bill to be a political move employed by Macron in preparation for the 2022 presidential elections, in which the current president will face Marine Le Pen, the current leader of the far-right group National Rally. In order to appeal to right-leaning voters and break into the Le Pen electorate, Macron has asserted himself as a staunch opponent of radicalism. Recently, in a televised debate, the Interior Minister and the bill’s main sponsor, Gerald Darmanin, criticized Marine Le Pen for being “soft” on radical Islam, a statement that left even Le Pen visibly confused as her party is often the one subject to criticism due to its harsh anti-immigration policies.

The bill will advance to the conservative-controlled Senate on March 30 for the final vote, where it is expected to pass.