The CFCM condemns the media-political harassment of which Muslim women carrying a veil are victims.

In a statement published this Wednesday, the French Muslim worship council (CFCM) condemns “media-political harassment” which Muslim women carrying the veil are victims.

“Whatever their approaches or their life choices, these women have become, in our country, an easy target, erected as a scapegoat many ills from our society”, deplores the organization, which is worried about a “permanent, deleterious and stigmatizing campaign” fueling tensions and divisions. The CFCM recalls that it “always denounced the wearing of the veil when it is imposed”.

But it also castigates “any drift which, under the guise of emancipation or secularism, allows itself a paternalistic, condescending, and often dangerous look” towards those which made the choice to wear it. Faced with a climate of increasing suspicion towards Muslim citizens, the CFCM calls for “reason, restraint and the sense of responsibility”, denouncing the instrumentalization of these debates for ideological and political ends.

CFCM press release

The CFCM condemns the media-political harassment of which are victims

Muslim women wearing a veil.

Whatever their approaches or their life choices, these women have become, in our country, an easy target, erected as a scapegoat many ills from our society. Some accuse them of communitarianism or entrism, others claim to want to “liberate” them with an alleged enslavement. In both cases, their fundamental freedoms are called into question.

This permanent, deleterious and stigmatizing campaign, feeds tensions and weakens national cohesion. She exposes these women to increasing forms of insecurity, of verbal and physical assaults, which has become a daily reality for a growing number of citizens that the Republic must nevertheless protect.

The CFCM has always denounced the wearing of the veil when imposed. But it also rises against any drift which, under cover of emancipation or secularism, allows itself a paternalistic, condescending, and often dangerous look at women who have freely chosen to wear the veil.

Let us recall the declaration of the Secretary General of the United Nations, pronounced in French before representatives around the world: “In some countries, women and girls are punished because they wear too much clothes. In others, because they do not carry ».

More than a century before him, Aristide Briand, rapporteur of the law of 1905 – foundation of our secularism – affirmed, in response to a proposal to prohibit priests with the port of cassock in public space, “The cassock becomes, the day after the separation, a garment like any other, accessible to all citizens, priests or not. This is the only solution that seemed to us in accordance with the very principle of separation (…) ”.

In our country those responsible for public services unlike users are subject to religious neutrality. The majority of French people in Muslim confession have always accepted this difference in status, inscribed in the law of the Republic, between the agents of the public function, because holders of the public power, and the users. But constantly wanting to legislate to erase the religious visibility of a single component of our country is not only contrary to the principle of equal treatment but also to the very principle of secularism.

The vagueness that surrounds the terms as “entrism” or “Islamism” today creates a climate where no Muslim citizens feel sheltered from suspicion. In the name of a misguided secularism, there is without restraint of a debate on the veil in sport at the break of the fast during a match, even to the so -called shortage of eggs allocated to Ramadan.

The CFCM calls for reason, restraint and the sense of responsibility. These subjects, too often instrumentalized, should not become the field of ideological, media and political opportunism fields to the detriment of national cohesion, security, integrity and respect for everyone’s freedoms, and a fortiori women regardless of their life choices.

Paris, March 26, 2025

French advice for Muslim worship (CFCM)