by STEVEN ERLANGER and MAIA de la BAUME
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.”
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There are estimated to be five to six million Muslims in France, about 10 percent of the population, the second-largest religion after Roman Catholicism.
Yazid Sabeg, an adviser to Mr. Sarkozy, also opposed the debate, saying the real questions for immigrants and their families were youth unemployment, ghettoization and fair access to education, not Islam.
Farid Hannache, a close aide to the moderate imam of Drancy, Hassen Chalghoumi, attended. There was a republican consensus to respect, he said. “If we don’t debate, we are cowards,” he said. “If we don’t act, we betray.”
Omar Ait Mokhtar, a film director and a governing party member, said: “It’s a very interesting debate, necessary and constructive. We North Africans are secular; there’s only a minority of fanatics.” He was skeptical at first, but found the debate worthwhile, and even brave, he said.
But there is a fierce political undercurrent. Mr. Sarkozy is trying to reunite the right by defending “French values” and talking tough on crime. With his poll ratings so low, the possibility that he will fail to win re-election next year haunts the party, and it is already causing cleavages between different camps and leading figures like Mr. Fillon and Mr. Copé, who might compete to succeed Mr. Sarkozy down the road.
NYT for more
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