Muslims will be banned from praying outdoors in France in the latest move to remove Islam from the public sphere. The ban, announced by the government on September 16, infuriated French Muslim leaders, one of whom accused the government of treating them like cattle. They say Muslims, who pray outdoors only because of a lack of space in mosques in France, feel stigmatised.
But the Interior Minister said the sight of hundreds of people gathering in the streets of Paris and other cities for Friday prayers was “shocking”. It comes after laws to prohibit pupils from wearing headscarves in schools and women from wearing the niqab in public.