Lawmakers in the French parliament's lower house approved a bill on Tuesday that would increase oversight of mosques, schools, and sports clubs to protect and promote French values.
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The wide-ranging bill titled "Supporting Respect for the Principles of the Republic" is one of President Emmanuel Macron's landmark projects.
After two weeks of intense debate, the vote in the National Assembly house was the first critical hurdle for the legislation that has been long in the making. The bill passed 347 to 151, with 65 abstentions.
With France bloodied by terror attacks and French troops now fighting extremists in Mali, few disagree that radicalization is a danger. But critics also see the proposed law as a political ploy to lure the Right to Macron's centrist party ahead of next year's presidential election.
It has been hotly contested by some Muslims and lawmakers who fear the state is intruding on essential freedoms and pointing a finger at Islam, the nation's second most common religion. Detractors say the measures are already covered in current laws.
The legislation breezed through a chamber in which Macron's party has a majority.
The bill gained urgency after a teacher was beheaded outside Paris in October, and three people were killed during a knife attack at a Nice basilica the same month.
A section that makes it a crime to knowingly endanger the life of a person by providing details of their private life and location is known as the "Paty law," named after Samuel Paty, a teacher who was killed outside his school after information about where he taught had been posted online.
The bill mentions neither Muslims nor Islam by name. Supporters say it aims to snuff out what the government describes as encroaching fundamentalism that subverts French values, notably the nation's foundational value of secularism and gender equality.
Top representatives of all religions were consulted as the text was drafted. The government's leading Muslim conduit, the French Council for the Muslim Faith, gave its backing.
Ghaleb Bencheikh, head of the Foundation for Islam of France, a secular body seeking a progressive Islam, said in a recent interview that the planned law was "unjust but necessary" to fight radicalization.
Among other provisions, the bill would ban virginity certificates and crack down on polygamy and forced marriages. The bill introduces mechanisms to guarantee that mosques and associations that run them are not under the sway of foreign interests or homegrown Salafists with a rigorous interpretation of Islam.
Associations will be required to sign a contract of respect for French values or return state funds if they disobey the contract. Police officers and prison employees will also be required to take an oath to respect the nation's values and the constitution.
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