Green presidential candidate Eva Joly
France 24.
Speaking in Paris on Wednesday at her first campaign rally, Green presidential candidate Eva Joly argued that national holiday status should be accorded to the Muslim festival of Eid-ul-Fitr and the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur.
Currently six of the 12 national holidays in France are Catholic calendar events, with the other six having no religious connotation.
“Each religion should benefit from equal treatment in the public sphere,” she said. “I believe that national holidays should also be accorded to faiths other than the Catholic faith.” Describing religious equality as a “key element” of French identity, she then blamed the policies of President Nicolas Sarkozy for dividing religious communities. “Yes, I’ll say it,” she said. “This [suffering] has been caused by five years of Sarkozy-ism.”
Categories: France
This daring statement may, dowon the line, pave the way for mutual respect amongst different religions and denominations.
That was a great idea. Normally, here, they want to keep religion and state separated. It’s the secularism! But anyhow religion does impact the state laws and actions. Sometimes, they just can’t separate these two things, taking the example of holidays here: Christmas, Easter, Whit Monday, All Saints day, Advent etc. And they are, in a way, celebrated by the state, for exampleblinking tree lights, big blow up Santas etc. Why are these holidays secularized? I don’t know on one hand side you say that state has nothing to do with religion and on the other hand side you show that you care for religion? How is it going to be balanced for other religions in your state? Do you care for them as you do for Christianity?
We really appreciate the way you have analyzed the claim of being secular on the part of Governments.
One more thing, it sounds very good and nice to have Eid ul Fitr as national holiday but but..I wonder, if this status is accorded to Eid ul Fitr, which Eid ul Fitr is it going to be. Different Muslim communities celebrate Eid on different days. Some say they depend on the moon, some follow Saudi Arabia, and some just want to complete 30 fasting days etc. And even the date of Eid varies, moving backwards by about ten/ eleven days each year. Well that’s another issue how they are going to put it in practice.
Right, it will be rather frustrating and embarrassing to try to explain that the Eid is celebrated on usually about 3 different dates…
but may be the problem is solved soon, see http://www.themuslimtimes.org/2012/02/religion/islam/makkah-meet-calls-for-panel-to-unify-lunar-calendar
I strongly feel that the problem of three Eid ul Fitrs will automatically be solved, if French Gov recognizes it a public holiday. They would never wait for the fatwas, rather, they will decide the date as per astronomical calculations. Once dates announced by the gov, everybody will automatically celebrate the same day. Nobody will afford to celebrate on a different date.