Islam debate plan opposed

THE leading figures of France’s chief religions are protesting plans by President Nicolas Sarkozy’s party to hold a debate next week on Islam’s role in the country.

The top representatives of France’s Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox Christians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists published a joint statement saying the debate could add “to the confusion in the troubled period we are traversing.”

Muslim leaders in France have said the debate will further stigmatise western Europe’s largest Islamic population, at least 5 million people.

The April 5 debate has divided Sarkozy’s UMP party, with some seeing it as pandering to the resurgent far right National Front party. Its backers say it’s aimed at discussing France’s secular traditions, and how to accommodate Islamic customs.