the Snes-FSU denounces “a form of targeting of the Muslim religion”

“We are really on a form of targeting of the Muslim religion which challenges us”castigated Sophie Vénétitay, the secretary general of SNES-FSU, the first secondary union, this Monday on franceinfo, after the evaluation of the absenteeism rate observed during Eid al-Fitr requested by the Ministry of interior “in certain academies, to the heads of establishments”.

A “census” requested by the police

In the Toulouse academy, police asked the heads of Toulouse schools, by email, to tell them the number of students absent on the day of the end of Ramadan for Muslims, celebrated on April 21. last. “One wonders what they wanted to do with these statistics”, wondered Sophie Vénétitay. Sunday evening, faced with the indignation aroused by the practice, the Secretary of State in charge of Citizenship Sonia Backès indicated in a press release that “the Ministry of the Interior and Overseas regularly studies the impact of certain religious holidays on the functioning of public services, and in particular within the school sphere. (…) A press release of great lightness”slammed the general secretary of the SNES-FSU, insisting on the fact of not having had “echo of such a survey in our schools for any religious holiday whatsoever”.

Sophie Vénétitay asks the Ministry of the Interior to “state clearly what has been done. (…) Is this an isolated initiative? Was it ordered by the Minister of the Interior himself?, she asked. If the rectorate of Toulouse distanced itself from Place Beauvau by indicating that the request of the police had been made directly to the establishments concerned, without the approval of the rectorate of Toulouse, Sophie Vénétitay demands from the Ministry of National Education that he takes “clearly and officially” his “distances from this survey. (…) A list of religious holidays for which students can be absent” exists, recalls the trade unionist. “The state should not interfere in what children, students and families do in this area”she added.