the participation of elected officials in Ramadan meals scrutinized on social networks

Does an elected official contravene secularism by participating in a fast-breaking dinner during Ramadan? This recurring question resurfaced thanks to the participation of the mayor of Lyon, Grégory Doucet, for such a meal, organized on Wednesday April 27 at the French Institute of Muslim Civilization.

Secularism with variable geometry?

This institute, which defines itself as a “space dedicated to Islamic culture and arts, at the service of living together, culture and knowledge” is located in the immediate vicinity of the Great Mosque of Lyon, in the 8^e arrondissement. The ecologist mayor of the city was accompanied by the prefect and the constituted bodies.

→ REREAD. The mayor of Lyon will not go to the ceremony of the “wish of the aldermen”

Presented by Grégory Doucet as “a warm moment to which non-believing and believing guests of all faiths were invited”this dinner was nevertheless an opportunity for the mayor of Lyon to ensure his ” support “ has his “Muslim compatriots, painfully affected by the political manipulations designating them as scapegoats during this electoral campaign”. On social networks or sites to the right of the right, some have pointed to his different approach for the religious ceremony of the Vow of the aldermen.

Indeed, in the name of respect for secularism, the mayor of Lyon, elected in 2020, decided not to participate in this Marian ceremony for the renewal of the vows of the aldermen on September 8. This tradition dates back to 1643, when the aldermen – the city leaders – of Lyon went in procession to the Notre-Dame de Fourvière basilica to ask the Virgin to protect the city against the plague epidemic.

Do not favor any worship

“In my interpretation of the rules of secularism, he declared to the local television channel BFM Lyon, I let the believers perform this ceremony. » But Grégory Doucet still gives a speech on the forecourt of the basilica in which he assures them of his “Profound respect for your religion and your faith and my total commitment to the defense of secularism which guarantees everyone the freedom to believe and not to believe. »

In addition to the mayor of Lyon, many elected officials participate in fast-breaking evenings in France at the invitation of local Muslim communities, like Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris at the Grand Mosque of Paris on April 25 , or Olivier Faure, the first secretary of the Socialist Party in Savigny-le-Temple (Seine-et-Marne). If the Republic “does not recognize, pay or subsidize any worship”its elected officials regularly maintain links with representatives of religions, but must not favor any of them.

In a document dating from 2015, entitled “Laïcité, le vade-mecum de l’AMF”, the Association of Mayors of France explained: “Participation in religious ceremonies, as an elected official, must be done in strict respect of republican neutrality, that is to say without manifestation of one’s own belief or non-belief. »

LFI pleads “semantic clumsiness”

In the Rhône, a controversy erupted on the occasion of an evening of breaking the Ramadan fast, but for another reason. La France insoumise canceled a “iftar evening” scheduled for Friday, April 29 in a popular district of Villeurbanne. The event, dubbed “Iftar Pop'”, announced on the People’s Union Facebook page and in leaflets, proposed “a shared meal after breaking the fast”at 8:30 p.m., in Tonkin Park, “to talk about neighborhood issues and national news”.

Recognizing a “a semantic awkwardness”, the meal was finally canceled in “consultation with the People’s Union at the national level, for fear of seeing the far right disembark” according to an elected LFI from Villeurbanne. The announcement of this “Iftar Pop'” had aroused criticism from the mayor of Villeurbanne Cédric Van Styvendael and from the Radical Left Party (PRG) of the Rhône.

“Under no circumstances can a religious moment be used for a political event. There’s a mix of genres that I can’t condone.”underlined the mayor of Villeurbanne – allied to LFI – in the daily Progress.

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