France’s Joly demands Muslim holidays - Gayo Lues

“Each religion should benefit from equal treatment in the public sphere,” Green party presidential candidate, Eva Joly said at her first campaign rally in Paris on Wednesday

“I believe that national holidays should also be accorded to faiths other than the Catholic faith,” she added.

Joly also said that religious equality was a “key element of the French national identity” and it had been “battered by five years of the Nikolas Sarkozy presidency”.

The Green candidate proposal for new national holidays faced fiery remarks immediately from many French officials.

“France’s national holidays have come about through our Christian history. We are not going to rub out our history,” Minister of Higher Education and UMP member Laurent Wauqiez said.

“While the state respects all religions, it recognizes none,” Michael Sapin, campaign director for Socialist presidential candidate François Hollande said, adding that Joly should bear in mind “the great French principle of secularism”.

Marine Le Pen, head of the far-right National Front party, attacked Joly directly, calling her rival presidential candidate a “Francophobe”.

“I have to ask myself if Eva Joly finds anything good in France, our people, traditions, history and life morals (…). It’s astonishing coming from a presidential candidate.”

Eid al-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan — the ninth month on the Islamic calendar when Muslims refrain from dawn to dusk from eating, drinking, smoking, and indulging in anything that is in excess or ill-natured.

PG/JR

source: Presstv.ir – Europe News

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