French Interior Minister Claude Guéant has continued his assault on Islam by saying that he intends to ban prayer in the street. It’s the latest in a series of comments which many have considered to be discriminatory.
What many French people may not realize is that these outdoor prayers, as with any public gathering in France, always receive government approval beforehand.
Cairo is “the city of 1,000 minarets” but Paris is the city of 1 minaret, despite the fact that France has the largest Muslim population in Europe. The lack of mosque space forces Muslims to conduct their Friday prayers in the street, but only in a dozen or so places in all of France.
French politicians continually invoke the country’s 1905 secularism law to explain why the state cannot give financial assistance to build more mosques for their taxpaying citizens.
But even when they have the money, Muslims continually allege that right-wing mayors refuse construction permits and keep land in the hands of the municipalities to prevent the creation of mosques.
It’s said that France has 2,000 mosques nationwide, but the overwhelming majority of these are actually small prayer rooms. Just one large mosque is currently under construction in Paris and most say it still won’t be enough.
The French media often portrays these Muslims praying in the street as engaging in some type of provocative act, but the fact is they’d rather be inside in a mosque.
Analysts say that any lasting solution is going to require concessions from both the Muslim community and the state, but what won’t solve the problem is inflammatory rhetoric from politicians.