Reuters: In Paris, Muslim parents are forced to send their children to a school 200 km away

Muslims in Paris are forced to send their children to a private Muslim school 200 kilometers from their home. This is due to factors such as the fact that the French government has closed at least 5 Muslim schools since 2017 and stopped funding such schools.

Muslims in Paris are forced to send their children to a private Muslim school 200 kilometers from their home. According to Reuters, at least five Muslim schools in the country have been closed by local departments of the national government since Emmanuel Macron came to power in 2017. At the same time, there are serious problems in the issue of state funding of Muslim schools. In the pre-Macron era, nine schools received state aid, but since 2017 only one Muslim school has received funding.

And in December of last year, 2 million euros of aid promised to the Averroes school in Lille, France, which has a high result in terms of academic indicators, was also stopped.

Reuters spoke to more than a dozen current and former principals and teachers at more than 10 Muslim schools during the investigation, who said the institutions were under attack, including censure and discrimination on false grounds, preventing them from integrating more closely into the state system.

"It's really a double standard: who has to conform in a certain way to the values of a secular republic and who doesn't," said Carol Ferrera, an American anthropologist who studies French religious schools and notes a more lenient approach to Catholic and Jewish schools.

French media reported that Stanislas, a prominent Catholic school in Paris, kept its funding despite inspectors last year finding problems with sexist or homophobic ideas and compulsory religious classes.

Human rights and Muslim groups say the government is attacking religious freedom by targeting Muslim schools, making it harder for Muslims to express themselves.

Four parents and three teachers interviewed by Reuters said they were unhappy that the campaign had alienated Muslims from their communities.

Thomas Misita, 42, a father of three daughters who attend Averroes, is also angry.

"I feel insulted," Misita said. "I consider myself 100% French and now there is a gap."

"Despite the collection of nearly 1 million euros in donations from individuals, enrollment for next year has dropped from 800 to about 500," said school director Eric Dufour.

He said the school is fighting a legal battle to overturn the decision. The school has given the state "all assurances" that it will respect the terms of its funding and respect French values.

"We are the most inspected school in France," he said.