Legislation and the Struggle for Secularism in France

Every Saturday, we revisit a story from the archives. This originally aired on March 29, 2021. None of the dates, titles, or other references from that time have been changed.

When France's President Emmanuel Macron announced a controversial bill on “Islamist separatism” in 2020, members of the country’s Muslim population worried about what would happen next. As France's politicians try to outmaneuver each other from the right, what impact will their politicking have on a community that's found itself at the heart of this debate?

In this episode: 

• Yasser Louati (@yasserlouati), human rights and civil liberties activist at the Justice and Liberties For All Committee (@justicelibertes) and host of Le Breakdown
• Christelle Rabier (@ChRabier), Historian

Episode credits:

This episode was updated by Tamara Khandaker. The original production team was Negin Owliaei, Alexandra Locke, Amy Walters, Priyanka Tilve, Dina Kesbeh, Ney Alvarez, Natalia Aldana, Stacey Samuel, and our host, Malika Bilal. 

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our engagement producers are Adam Abou-Gad and Vienna Maglio. Aya Elmileik is lead of audience engagement. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.