THE NEW YORK TIMES: PARIS — France’s governing party pressed ahead on Tuesday with a controversial debate on the nature of secularism and the challenges of Islam, an exercise criticized by some in the government and numerous religious leaders and ridiculed as cynical by both the Socialist opposition and the far-right National Front.
Held at a Paris hotel in the presence of some 600 religious leaders, legislators and journalists, the debate was shunned by prominent members of the government, and its title was altered to remove any reference to Islam, resulting in the anodyne “Secularism: To Live Better Together.”
It was three hours of debate after two months of fierce political squabbling.
Initiated by President Nicolas Sarkozy, the debate was organized by the leader of his party, the Union for a Popular Movement, Jean-François Copé. But the prime minister, François Fillon, quietly refused to take part, fearing that it would push the party too far to the right and might lead to “a stigmatization of Muslims,” he said, leading Mr. Copé to accuse him of “not being a team player.”
The concern is to help along a Westernized version of Islam that fits within the behavioral and cultural norms of France, which accept gender equality and the private nature of religious belief.
Mr. Copé said the debate was “controversial but necessary,” saying that “the values of France are like the Three Musketeers: liberty, equality, fraternity.” He would add a fourth, he said — secularism. » | Steven Erlanger and Maïa de la Baume | Tuesday, April 05, 2011
