French court heats up religion debate
By Katrin Bennhold International Herald Tribune / September 9, 2008
PARIS - A decision by a French court to postpone a robbery trial involving a Muslim defendant until the end of the holy month of Ramadan has set off a new fracas here about whether France’s fiercely secularist institutions are bending to religious demands.
The court in the western city of Rennes did not cite the period of religious fasting as the reason for rescheduling the trial, which was due to begin Sept. 16. It stated only that the decision was made to ensure “a good administering of justice.”
The prosecutor in the case, Leonard Bernard de la Gratinais, responded to the protests by saying at an impromptu news conference Friday that Ramadan had nothing to do with the postponement. “That could be contrary to the principles of the republic,” he said.
But several observers argued that the request to reschedule the trial had been filed by the Muslim defendant explicitly on the grounds that he would be fasting and therefore at a disadvantage during the proceedings.
On Aug. 27, the court rejected two other pleas his lawyers had made for a delay: that a separate narcotics case involving some of the defendants was in progress and that an appeals court decision was pending on the alleged sexual harassment of one of the defendants by a police officer.
“A detailed analysis of the case allows one to doubt the words of the prosecutor,” the conservative newspaper Le Figaro wrote in an editorial. “This is secular France, one and indivisible, that is attacked in its foundations, its integrity flouted, its values disowned.”
The case has added to a debate that the nation’s delicate balance between a tradition of republican secularism and the freedom of religion guaranteed under the Constitution is shifting.
It came three months after a court in Lille annulled a marriage at the request of a Muslim husband who said his wife had lied about being a virgin. The government subsequently demanded a review of the verdict and a final decision is expected this month.
Fadela Amara, the minister for urban affairs, warned that, between the two cases, there was the risk of a trend emerging.
“One point plus one point makes a straight line,” Amara, a practicing Muslim of Algerian descent, said in an interview with the newspaper Liberation that was published Saturday.
Others warned against an overreaction, arguing that taking account of religious holidays and practices, within reason, was a sign of pragmatism rather than a threat to the notion of “laicite,” France’s separation of religion and state. Liberation quoted a number of lawyers who said that Christian and Jewish holidays were routinely, if informally, taken into account when scheduling hearings.
Yann Choucq, the lawyer who had filed the request for a postponement of the trial, said: “Why all the excitement? Are there hearings on Christmas or Thanksgiving, not republican holidays as far as I know? Isn’t it common to obtain postponements for Jewish or other holidays? Are there religions that are more respectable than others?”