Controversy Surrounding Absenteeism of Muslim Students on Eid in Toulouse

The absenteeism rate of Muslim students in the city of Toulouse and its surroundings is at the center of all the debates. Elements of the regional police have probably asked education officials to send them the list of all the students absent on April 21, the day of Eid el-fitr.

Movement considered inappropriate by many, this act thus provokes a veritable torrent of negative feedback on social networks, and the response of the Toulouse academy is not long in being heard.

Students absent on Eid day el-fitr identified in Toulouse: the police are investigating

According to an article by The Midi Dispatchpolice officers from the Toulouse region would thus have summoned school teachers to provide them with the exact attendance figures on 21 April. This date coincides with the first day of Eid el-fitra day when several students of the Muslim faith were then absent for religious reasons.

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“At the request of the intelligence services and to carry out an assessment of this day, we are asking you to know the percentage of absenteeism on Friday, April 21, during the Eid holiday. Please get back to us quickly,” asks the email, addressed to the heads of schools in the region.

The representatives of the French National Education react to the “religious registration” in Toulouse

If it comes from a government institution (regional police)this decision does nothas apparently not passed by the national education services. The rectorate of Toulouse, represented by Mostafa Fourar also indicates that “if someone took this initiative, the National Education is absolutely not associated with it”.

The request was sent by email without being approved by the academy upstream, explains the rectorate.

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And Haute-Garonne was not the only department to be affected by this request. School principals and heads of schools in Hérault also received similar emails.

“We are asked about school absenteeism during the Ramadan period (…) and particularly on the day of April 21, day of theEid[[Aïd-el-Fitrwhich marks the end of the fast religious” can-we read in the said e-mails. The academic director of the national education services thus intervened the next day to ask those concerned not to respond to the requests.

This haphazard campaign is contested by many deputies, who are indignant at the “fundament of Islamophobia” from which the approach stems.