2023-05-22 02:36:33
While the controversy swells for several days, the Ministry of the Interior reacted this Sunday. In the Toulouse academy, police asked the heads of schools, by email and without the approval of the rectorate, to tell them the number of students absent on the day of Eid al-Fitr, a holiday celebrated on April 21, which marks the end of Ramadan. A request that aroused the indignation of the educational community and associations such as SOS Racisme.
In a press release, the Secretary of State responsible for citizenship, Sonia Backès, acknowledges that the Ministry of the Interior has requested in certain academies an “evaluation of the rate of absenteeism observed on the occasion of Eid al- Fitr” but denies any desire to “file” students based on their confession.
“Regular” impact studies
“The ministry regularly studies the impact of certain religious holidays on the functioning of public services, and in particular within the school sphere,” she continued. And to insist: “No personal data was neither requested nor recorded at any time. »
The Union of Mosques calls for an investigation
Association, trade union or political leaders were concerned about this police initiative, some like former socialist deputy Jean-Christophe Cambadélis evoking “a file in the whole of the city”. In two press releases sent this Sunday, SOS Racisme denounced a request from the police “particularly shocking in that it associates Muslim religious practice with a question of security” then “a culpable casualness” of the ministry “when it comes to to explain an act which therefore stems from an instruction that he issued”.
The Sud Éducation union for its part denounced “Islamophobic excesses” in the administration. “AESH colleagues and agents were refused leave of absence”, for the day of the party, unlike teachers, he also indicated. The Union of French Mosques for its part requested a “proper investigation”: “Families must be duly informed and reassured of the future of the information given by certain heads of establishments having, unfortunately, responded to the solicitation of the policemen. »
A source close to the case had mentioned to AFP a “clumsiness” in the formulation of the request relayed by the referent police officers of National Education for the benefit of territorial intelligence.
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