Pork becomes a hot topic again ahead of new school year in France

Whether or not to use alternative foods to replace pork in school meals continues to be a controversial topic in French society.

The administrative court of the city of Dijon, located more than 300km east of the capital Paris, on August 28 issued a ruling rejecting the previous decision of the city of Chalon-sur-Saône in the region, about not preparing an alternative menu for pork in school canteens.

Illustration photo: Reuters

This decision immediately caused great controversy, not only in the region of Bourgogne, but also in the whole of France, because it revived one of the sensitive topics of religion in French schools in recent years.

Previously, since September 2015, the Chalon-sur-Saône City Hall has decided not to prepare alternative menus for pork in school canteens.

The city hall’s argument is that in an educational environment, it is necessary to ensure absolute secularity, that is, religious or political issues should not be present in schools. Therefore, preparing alternative menus for Muslim students could cause discrimination against other students.

However, the Legal Defense League for Muslims (LDJM) in France strongly protested the decision of the Chalon-sur-Saône City Hall, claiming that it was illegal, discriminatory and violated freedom of religion. The federation then filed a lawsuit with the Dijon Administrative Court, leading to the verdict on August 28.

It is worth mentioning that in the announcement, the Dijon Administrative Court defended its decision by saying that it did so to "protect the best interests of the students" and avoided mentioning the argument about freedom of belief and religion.

Therefore, the Mayor of Chalon-sur-Saône city criticized the ruling of the Dijon Administrative Court and said he would appeal to a higher court, warning that the recent ruling could set a negative precedent throughout France.

These arguments are not entirely unreasonable because for many years, the debate about whether to put pork on school menus has always been a sensitive and divisive topic in French society.

While those who defend the practice of treating pork like all other foods argue that secularity, that is, non-religious and non-political, must always be maintained as one of the most important values ​​of French education, as well as of the French political system, those who oppose it, mainly the Muslim community in France, consider it an insult and discrimination against their community, because in the Islamic faith, pork is a forbidden food.

This controversy and division has been deepened in recent years by the growth of the far-right National Front (FN) party as well as by the fact that more and more French people are wary of the penetration of Islam into French social life, causing religious and cultural conflicts with indigenous people./.

According to VOV