Academics & Education

French Senate OKs proposal to ban prayers at universities Senate approves adding proposal to ban religious practices in university corridors to bill against 'Islamist separatism'

(Anadolu) France’s Senate approved the addition of a ban on religious practices in university corridors to a controversial bill to fight “Islamist separatism” late Wednesday. Discussing the draft bill, which has been criticized for alienating Muslims, the center-right Republicans (LR) party proposed […]

Academics & Education

French ministry bashes religious symbols proposals Lawmakers adopt measures against religious symbols on parents accompanying children on school trips

(Anadolu) France’s interior minister on Wednesday criticized two legal amendments adopted by lawmakers prohibiting parents from wearing visible religious symbols while accompanying their children on school trips and allowing public swimming pools to ban “burkini” swimwear. Gerald Darmanin said the measures, approved […]

Academics & Education

German professor under police protection for stance on Islamophobia A German professor at a university in Grenoble, France, has become the target of a hate campaign for not wanting to compare anti-Semitism with Islamophobia.

(Deutsche Welle) “Fascists in our lecture halls! Dismiss Professor Kinzler! Islamophobia kills,” read the large banners hanging at the University of Grenoble. Activists from the French student union Unef also posted the slogans online. Five months after the brutal murder of history […]

Academics & Education

French minister defends ‘Islamo-leftism’ inquiry Frédérique Vidal says the term didn’t have a ‘scientific definition, but it corresponds to a feeling.’

(Politico) French Minister for Higher Education and Research Frédérique Vidal today defended her probe into the influence of postcolonial studies and “Islamo-leftism” in the country’s universities. Vidal received plenty of criticism from universities and left-wing parties after she first announced the inquiry […]

Academics & Education

France: No Samuel Paty school after backlash over name change A French town won't rename a school after Samuel Paty — who was slain by an Islamist extremist — following backlash from teachers and parents. The move marks a sign of deeper divisions in French society.

(Deutsche Welle) No one at the school “The Eucalypts” in the village of Ollioules, near the Mediterranean coast in southern France, wants to talk to the media anymore. Sandra Olivier, maths teacher and member of the teachers’ union SNES-FSU, turned down DW’s […]