Striking amendments to 1905 Law

The French daily L’Opinion unveiled on November 5 some of the amendments that will be introduced to the 1905 Law on the Separation of the Church and the State. The law was amended several times in the past years.

New amendments to the law, according to the French newspaper, include the addition of new articles. Here are some of the new articles that will likely be added to the law:

Religious societies have to register themselves in the light of the 1905 Law on the Separation of the Church and the State, not in the light of the 1901 Law.

The societies that register themselves in the light of the 1905 Law will be given tax exemptions.

The registration makes the societies go hand in hand with the provincial regulations.

The societies need to submit a 5-year recognition request to the provinces.

A society that threatens public security or pursues activities that harm the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the French constitution will be stripped of its legal status in the light of Article no. 18.

Article no. 19 gives syndicate offices the right to counter actions by radical or fundamentalist elements. 

To say the truth, this is a positive amendment. Nonetheless, it is important to look at the tax system that will be applied to the societies. The system will give the chance to Salafist societies to get rich.

The amendments allow the societies to lease real estate properties to others in the future. They give them tax exemptions, when they conduct renewal works that reduce energy consumption in them.

The societies also have to have a written record of the real estate properties they are leasing to others under supervision from the Court of Audit.

In cases of violations, a society will be forced to pay a fine up to 9,000 Euros.

Around 200 societies that are affiliated to the Federation of Islamic Organizations in France can get rich because of this article. Hundreds of Salafists can also get rich from real estate investments.

Societies will also be allowed to get funding from individuals, even if this funding exceeds 10,000 Euros. Nevertheless, the authorities have the right to object to funding, if it will threaten public order and security.

The authorities have the right to object to the financing of societies in case the person offering this funding is involved in criminal offences, such as drug trafficking.

The authorities can also object to funding if the person offering this funding will promote extremism or hatred. Societies are prone to fines if they accept financing from foreign entities. Fines in this case can amount to a quarter of the financing. The financing itself can also be seized by the authorities.

This is probably the most important amendment to the law. It offers guarantees that the societies will not be given funding by foreign entities.

However, the authorities need to take firm action against Qatari financing of the societies. This will mark a real departure from the conduct of French authorities in the past.

The amendments punish those who hinder worship or threaten to do this (this was actually done by the Salafists in the past) by jailing up to a year and a fine up to 15,000 Euros.

The amendments also punish those who attack others by jailing up to three years and a fine up to 45,000 Euros.

The amendments punish those who incite others to break the law, either through speeches or by writing by a fine up to 12,000 Euros.

They ban political meetings at houses of worship in the light of Article no. 26.

This is another positive point in the amendments unveiled by the French newspaper. A large number of members of parliament and municipality heads used the mosques in the past years to campaign for political candidates. Mosques were turned in Turkey into polling stations during the latest presidential and legislative elections.

In general terms, the amendments unveiled by L’Opinion include good articles. Nevertheless, some of the articles included in them allow religious societies to get rich.

This also allows Islamists to deliver speeches and sermons that contradict the ideals of the French Republic. The fact that the amendments commit the Islamic societies to register in the light of the 1905 Law makes them favorable.

There is an urgent need for the presence of new mechanisms for monitoring the financing of these societies. There is also a need for monitoring the ideologies controlling the mosques.

The fact is that we need to stand against the threat nobody speaks about, namely the one posed by the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists.