In 2004, Jean-Pierre Obin, then Inspector General of National Education, submitted a report on religious symbols in schools to his minister at the time, François Fillon.
A document already listing protests against secularism in class, which had remained a dead letter, buried by its recipient.
Sixteen years later, this “left” whistleblower, retired and therefore free to express himself, is worried about the rise in power of these attacks on the republican principle in an offensive book entitled “Comment on a left l ' Islamism penetrate the school ”(Hermann editions).
He is invited to speak about it this Tuesday at the Sorbonne in Paris during the “national seminar of the coordinators of the Values of the Republic teams” animated, among others, by the secularity in action referents in each academy.
Once again during this meeting opened by the Minister of Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, the former senior official will call on the Republic "to react".
Have attacks on secularism at school increased in recent years?
JEAN-PIERRE OBIN.
Since my 2004 report on religious symbols, this has been undeniable!
Today, the primary is very largely concerned with more than a third of the reports.
At the time, we had very few testimonies at this level.
Our survey was qualitative, with an inventory of around sixty establishments.
Today, we have a better knowledge of the phenomenon thanks to more in-depth studies and surveys.
Feedback to the Ministry of Education remains, however, very low ...
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Teachers speak more easily under the seal of anonymity than with their school head.
In the 2018 Ifop poll, more than a third of teachers said they had already self-censored “to avoid incidents”.
In priority education zones, they are even in the majority with 54%!
A good part of the facts thus pass under the radar.
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What are the new drifts?
The vast majority of cases are linked to Islamism, in particular to demands for purity marked by the growing influence of Salafism in a certain number of neighborhoods.
It is halal meat that is requested in the canteen and when it is not, it must especially not have been mixed with vegetables.
It is the story of the "Three Little Pigs" which is criticized because a Salafist pamphlet hammered out that it was an impure tale.
These are the swimming lessons massively dried by the girls under the pretext of allergy to chlorine.
The President of the Republic has just said that he wanted to put an end to medical certificates of convenience!
Recently there is also the demand for separate Muslim and non-Muslim locker rooms.
Biology and history lessons are sometimes contested when they tackle the evolution of species, reproduction, the Middle East, wars of decolonization ... Students may refuse to examine in their textbook the plan of a church or a church. 'accept that writing existed before Arabic writing.
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"Islamist separatism": Emmanuel Macron gets out of the ambiguity
How did we get here ?
The Republic has been attacked without reacting for over twenty years, it is high time it took action!
I see in it the responsibility of politicians, on the right and on the left, who have adopted ideological attitudes making the bed of the Islamists;
that of teachers for lack of courage, ideology or lack of training and finally that of school heads and managers of the institution who closed their eyes out of cowardice.
We must all the same pay tribute to Manuel Valls and Najat Vallaud-Belkacem who were able to react to the attacks of 2015, as well as to the current Minister of Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, more pragmatic and less ideological than his predecessors.
Where are these disputes most frequent?
In these ghetto neighborhoods which have become Salafist enclaves.
What can schools do to fight against these phenomena?
Nothing can be done if the archipelago of society and the ghettoization of neighborhoods continue.
We really need to introduce more social mix in schools, which is also a primary factor in academic success.
And train teachers in secularism.
Only 6% have taken a course on this issue.
In the National Higher Institutes of Teaching and Education (Inspé), only a quarter of the students received courses on secularism.
Of these, more than half say they were of poor or very poor quality.
I suggest that a test on secularism be introduced for all teaching competitions.
Of course, the school will not solve the scourge of Islamism on its own.
We need a comprehensive policy with long-term solutions.
And it is also a fight to be waged with other countries.
By pointing out very minor facts, aren't you afraid of stigmatizing Muslims?
Not at all, I make the difference between Islam, which is a great religion, and Islamism, which is not a religion, but a political project using Islam with the ambition to take power .
Muslims are the first victims of Islamism.
In 40 years, the Islamist attacks have killed 167,000 people around the world, 92% of them were Muslims!
I am not stigmatizing them by engaging in this fight, on the contrary, restoring the principle of secularism helps to protect them.
What do you think of the ban on homeschooling announced by Emmanuel Macron in his speech on separatism?
It is a very good thing, I had not thought of proposing it in my book, because it is at the limit of constitutionality.
What is certain is that in many cases it is a pretext to place children in underground schools and entrust them to Salafi preachers.
The President of the Republic has also just repeated that he does not wish to ban the veil to mothers accompanying school trips.
And you ?
As the president analyzes, most of these mothers wear the veil without a proselytizing vision, but militant Islamists insinuate themselves among them.
It is up to school principals today to sort it out by taking the risk of seeing their decision contested by these women and then invalidated by the courts.
I think that this issue should be debated in Parliament, because if it is not parliamentarians who decide, it is judges who do.
I prefer for democracy that it is the elected representatives of the people who decide.