French Muslims must choose sides on head scarf ban

DUGNY, France -- When 12-year-old Faten Ben Debaieb returned to school after summer vacation, she faced a painful choice: take off her head scarf or be expelled.

For France's Muslim community, a similar dilemma loomed 2,500 miles away in Iraq. There, kidnappers were threatening to kill their two French hostages unless France lifted the scarf ban. For the French Muslims, the question was whether to stand by their opposition to the newly instituted ban, or go along with it in solidarity with their government.

In the end, both went with the French flow: Faten shed her scarf, and the Muslim community sided with the government in resisting the kidnappers' demand. It was a defining moment in a long and bitter dispute.

Worried by the rise of an alienated minority in its midst, France has over the past decade sought to coax into existence an "Islam of France" compatible with French values and Muslim beliefs. The scarf ban is an important step in this effort, and the stakes are high. With an estimated 5 million adherents -- almost a tenth of the population -- Islam is France's second religion.

The meeting of minds between the French government and Muslim leaders over the hostages produced a rare chapter of solidarity. But Muslims remain bitter about the scarf ban, and it is sure to be challenged in court.

"It hurts. It makes me sad," Faten said. "It bothers me to show my hair like that."

But she dreams of becoming a doctor, and didn't want to sacrifice her education. So now she puts her scarf back on as soon as she leaves school.

Only 120 girls have defied the law since the school year got underway Sept. 2, according to Education Minister Francois Fillon. School authorities are quietly negotiating with them, officials said. On Friday, four girls at a school west of Paris who have refused to take off their scarves handed out bandannas to other pupils, a small group of whom held a sit-in in front of the school gates to support the girls, authorities said.

The insurgents holding Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot perhaps hoped to drive a wedge between France and its large Muslim community. But instead Muslim leaders lined up behind the government.

The question now is "the fate of our countrymen, not a piece of cloth," said Lhaj Thami Breze, president of the Union of Islamic Organizations of France.

"If there is a choice between liberating the hostages or abandoning the head scarf, I'll abandon the head scarf," he said in a telephone interview.

Three Muslim leaders -- fondly dubbed "The Three Musketeers" by the media -- traveled to Baghdad hoping to free the journalists. One of them represented the UOIF, which is considered a springboard for Muslim fundamentalism and therefore is viewed with mistrust by French officialdom. But it holds enormous sway among religious conservatives.

The UOIF "wholly understood this was a crossroads and that they had to choose sides, and they did very clearly," said Olivier Roy, a leading expert on Islam.

But the head scarf wars aren't over. "There will be other battles," said Antoine Sfeir, another Islam expert. Colleges and hospitals are bracing to be next in line for bans.

The UOIF is pressing for schools to allow bandannas, a discreet alternative to head scarves, and vowing to fight in court. The new law also bans Jewish skullcaps, Sikh turbans and large Christian crucifixes, but no one doubts its main target is Muslim head scarves.

Faten's mother, Mounira Ben Debaieb, hopes the French government will reward the Muslim community for its support in the hostage crisis by letting the girls wear bandannas at school and by being "more tolerant toward the Muslim community."

The day before school started in Dugny, a heavily immigrant suburb northeast of Paris, Faten's parents and her two brothers sat down with her to discuss what to do. They suggested a bandanna. It didn't work.

"The principal was at the door and he quickly called her name out. 'Faten, off with it. It's forbidden now,"' Faten's mother, Mounira Ben Debaieb, recounted.

The majority of Muslims, most from France's former North African colonies, have taken on French ways. But a conservative Islam flourishes in poor areas.

A confidential report released in June by education inspectors cited numerous cases of fundamentalism creeping into schools and classrooms, with some teachers, for example, unable to broach topics like the Holocaust or Darwinism.

Faten's mother believes officials are simply uncomfortable with France's large Muslim presence.

"In our age, it is shameful to have laws like that," she said. "We are French Muslims."