On January 19, 2022, the French Senate voted in favor of banning religious veils in sporting events held by an official sports federation. The bill passed in a 160 to 143 vote with overwhelming support of the French right-wing party, Les Republicains.
On December 28, 2021, a mosque in Beauvais, northern France, was ordered shut for six months for "inciting violence," according to France's Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin. Since mid-December, Darmanin’s administration has been trying to close the mosque down, due to reports of sermons that use violent and hateful comments targeting Christians, Jews, and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
On Monday, December 6, Pope Francis told reporters that “sins of the flesh are not the most serious.” The pope was taking questions from reporters aboard the papal plane during their flight from Cyprus and Greece back to Rome.
The Council of Europe (COE) pulled out ads for a campaign aimed at countering discrimination against European Muslim women who chose to wear head coverings. The Council of Europe is an inter-governmental human rights group with 47 member states. CoE also took down its Twitter post related to the campaign.
Schools across France paid homage in memory of Samuel Paty, a 47-year old history and geography teacher at the College Bois-d'Aulne in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine. French Prime Minister Jean Castex on Saturday, October 16, one year after Paty's murder.
On October 5, 2021, France's Parliament voted unanimously in favor of a proposed law that would ban conversion therapies. The proposed law will also penalize practitioners and perpetrators with a jail sentence and a fine.
A 2,500-page report documenting more than 330 thousand cases of sexual abuse was released by a commission headed by France’s Jean-Marc Sauve on October 5, 2021. The document also counted 3 thousand priests and clergy members, including other church servants involved in the coordinated coverup. Victims and advocates believe that the report is long overdue but welcomes it warmly.
Gerald Darmanin, France’s Interior Minister, in an interview with RTL radio in February 2021, commented on the proposed Anti-Separatism Bill. Darmanin describes the bill as tough but necessary, calling it “an extremely strong secular offensive.” The bill passed the lower house of the French parliament on Friday, July 23, 2021. Darmanin sponsored the bill with the support of his party, La République En Marche.
