By ISLAM TODAY - ISLAM TODAY
Added: Thu, 24 Feb 2011 13:49:58 UTC

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has set his sights on the role of Islam in a secular France, which looks set to become a major theme ahead of the 2012 presidential elections.

Sarkozy said Tuesday that he wants to launch a debate in April on the role and influence of religion in France, and particularly the country's second-largest religion Islam.

Sarkozy went on to set a deadline for a final decision on what role religion should play in France: "We need to formalise our position on the role of religions in France once and for all, and I want this to be achieved in 2011."

The call for a discussion on Islam follows comments Sarkozy made last week that "multiculturalism is not working" and is seen as a bid to win back voters from the far-right National Front party.

"There is a growing gulf between the media portrayal of Islam and the preoccupations of the French people," Sarkozy told members of his conservative Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party at a dinner he hosted this week.

Sarkozy told his UMP dinner guests that a refusal to address Islam's role would lead France down the wrong path. "In the 1980s we were careless about immigration because it was a taboo subject – and now we are paying the price for it," Sarkozy told the party members dining at the Elysée presidential palace. "The same thing is happening with Islam in France right now."

"We need to have a debate on prayer meetings in the streets," Sarkozy told his UMP party faithful, echoing the concerns of the far right. "In a secular country, we cannot tolerate having a public call to prayer."

"It is out of the question that French society should be influenced by Islam. This is a secular country."

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TAGGED: ISLAM, LAW, SECULARISM