France approves new law to combat Islamist radicalism

France has been the European country that has suffered most from Islamist radicalism, which is why the French country wanted to go a step further and has passed a law to combat, in the words of French president Emmanuel Macron, "Islamist separatism". The text was approved in a first reading by 347 votes in favour, 151 against and 65 abstentions. The next debate is scheduled for 30 March.

The Republic is still reeling from the recent Islamist attacks in September and October, which left four people dead. The beheading of secondary school teacher Samuel Paty for showing cartoons of Mohammed to his pupils reopened the debate on hate speech on social media. The teacher suffered a strong campaign of harassment on social media, led by the father of a pupil, before he was killed. 

This new law aims to tackle the problem of the dissemination of hate messages on social networks, and will create a specific offence punishable by three years' imprisonment and 45,000 euros for "endangering the life of others by the dissemination, with malicious intent, of information relating to life".

The text also proposes strengthening the control of mosques and associations to ensure that they respect republican principles. In January, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin reported that some 18 mosques (out of nearly 1,500 in France) were under investigation, and nine were reportedly closed.

Home schooling has been the subject of much debate between the various parties. The law proposed banning home schooling from the age of three to avoid indoctrination outside the education system. Following criticism, especially from Christian groups, the final text provides for a number of exceptions (health reasons, disability...) and the measure will not be implemented until 2024. On the other hand, proposals to ban the headscarf in universities or to prohibit the wearing of headscarves by minors were unsuccessful.

The bill also calls for the criminalisation of the issuing of virginity certificates and the crackdown on forced marriages. In short, the "bill reaffirming republican principles", as this new legislation, which avoids mentioning Islamism, modifies some fundamental laws of modern France, such as that of 1882 on the freedom of education or that of 1905 on the separation of Church and State.

Emmanuel Macron, after the still very recent trauma of the attacks and the harsh criticism he suffered internationally for his strategy against Islamism, thus intends to combat the Islamist radicalism that so afflicts his country and to guarantee secularism in France. The text recurrently avoids referring to any specific religion, so it seems to be a text that is only halfway to achieving its objectives of containing Islamist radicalisation and not directly targeting the Muslim community.

But it does not always rain on everyone's parade, and the new law has been criticised on all sides. The left believes that the text restricts freedoms and proposes a narrow vision of secularism. The right, on the other hand, believes that an opportunity has been missed to introduce amendments on the wearing of the veil, a recurrent debate in France since the 1980s.