Author: Reuters
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: September 3, 2003
URL: http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_359975,00050003.htm
The first Muslim high school in
mainland France opened its doors on Tuesday with several female teachers
and pupils wearing headscarves usually banned from public schools in this
majority Catholic country.
The private Lycee Averroes, named
after a prominent 12th-century Islamic philosopher from Spain, welcomed
a dozen teenagers -- six boys and six girls -- in its five-room premises
above a mosque in the northern city of Lille.
"Our teaching is in French, the
teachers are all accredited, the programme is the same as elsewhere, the
class is co-ed and wearing the veil is allowed for girls but not obligatory,"
said Makhlouf Mameche, deputy principal of the school.
The school, which hopes to expand
in coming years and is open to non-Muslims as well, is financed mostly
by donations from the faithful "without any foreign support," he added.
Foreign support is a sensitive issue
in France because some mosques financed from abroad, mainly Saudi Arabia,
are suspected of spreading radical Islam among disaffected Muslim youths.
France, whose five million Muslims
make Islam the country's second- largest religion, created a special council
earlier this year to maintain regular contact with its fractured Muslim
community and integrate it better into society.
Rigorously secular public schools
have alienated some Muslims by barring headscarves, a growing trend among
Muslim girls. About one- fifth of French pupils attend private schools,
but they are mostly run by the Catholic Church.
"We are not a religious establishment
but we offer Muslim culture as an option," Mameche told journalists. Among
the options are courses on Islam and Arabic language lessons.
The teachers, six men and four women,
have all taught in French high schools before joining the new lycee, he
added.
The school failed three times to
get permission from local authorities to operate before it finally won
approval by going to national education authorities. Mameche said approval
came so late that the school could not recruit more pupils this year.
The Lycee hopes to sign a contract
with the French state to have it pay teachers' salaries, as happens with
Catholic and other private schools, he added.
The only other Muslim school on
French territory is on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, one of France's
overseas departments.
