A “public” Muslim prayer in a gate area at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) has sparked outrage by French officials who see it as an affront to the secular nature of the Fifth Republic.
30 Muslim Travelers Kneel For Prayer At Paris CDG Airport
On Sunday, November 5, 2023, about 30 Muslim passengers knelt down to take part in a prayer in an open gate area of Terminal 2B, the largest at CDG, ahead of a flight to Amman, Jordan (AMM).
Such acts of public display are rare in France, which grounds itself in a secular (laïcité) public policy and even bans headscarves in schools and full face veils in public.
Pictures and video on social media captured images of the travelers joining together in praying in an overtly public place, even though there are prayer rooms in CDG and even specially-designated Muslim prayer rooms.
Augustin de Romanet, the chief executive of Paris Airports, wrote on X:
1) this is a first, regrettable
2) dedicated places of worship exist
3) the Border Police have been instructed to prohibit this and will increase their vigilance
1) il s agit d’une première, regrettable;
2) des lieux de culte dédiés existent;
3) la Police aux frontières @DCPAFcom a instruction d’interdire cela et va redoubler de vigilance;
4) pas nécessaire de monter cet épisode,inédit, en exergue en ce moment. https://t.co/X0pApLQSQP— Augustin de Romanet (@Romanet) November 5, 2023
Transport Minister Clement Beaune agreed, adding:
“Firmness and a reminder of the necessary rules, our airport teams are fully committed to this.”
Une fermeté et un rappel des règles nécessaires, les équipes de nos aéroports y sont totalement engagées. https://t.co/7An4RNjsPo
— Clement Beaune (@CBeaune) November 6, 2023
Of course I bring my American perspective to this, where the US Constitution explicitly reserves the right of free exercise of religion to the people, but I find this story–which has made headlines worldwide–such a tempest in a teapot. Not so much because it is not an important issue (it is), but because it should never have been seen as a problem in the first place.
I am a firm advocate of a separation of church and state and in the 21st century, I prefer secular governments to those lurching in a theocratic direction (I’m looking at you, thug Erdogan). But just because I do not want governments favoring one religious sect over another does not mean I think that faith is a private matter.
Every time I hear the Adhan (the Muslim call to prayer), I smile. When I see people gather to worship, even of a different faith than mine, I give thanks for the freedom to assemble.
I think Islam is a false religion, but I support the right of Muslims to gather together and pray and the militant secularism of France has always rubbed me the wrong way, as seen once again at Paris CDG Airport.
image: @noellelenoir / X
What do you mean “false religion”?
I have zero problem
With France freaking out over this. It’s their tradition/ law there. Not ours.
By false, I don’t believe in the truth claims of the religion.
I believe the right to this sort of free exercise is a universal human right.
As a non-Protestant Christian, I could say the same thing of your particular church too…
And? Of course you can.
I say the same thing about those Roman Catholic, JW, or Mormon fundamentalists too, so my assessment falls within, not just outside, the wider net of Xtian faith.
But the point is this has nothing to do with free exercise and its religious pursuit of secularism is something France does wrong, in my opinion at least.
Nothing about being a fundamentalist, you Protestant heathen. But I will keep praying to Jesus for you anyway.
I didn’t say you were a fundamentalist – I have no idea what flavor of Xianity you practice. Which one is it?
Lets just say a church that is a bit closer to where Jesus was born…
I’m genuinely curious. I’ve worshiped with an Arabic congregation in Nazareth before. Also in a Coptic Church in Egypt. Anyway, grace and peace…
Isn’t it amazing that of all the times and places and thousands of religions and sects for Matthew to be born into, he was born directly into the one “true” religion! How wonderfully serendipitous and convenient! Praise be!
I was not “born” into any religion.
Your comment is tone deaf
How about this: the Jewish faith is false too…or at least incomplete…
I don’t single out Muslims in the quest for truth. Have you found the truth?
According to this link:
https://www.parisaeroport.fr/en/passengers/services/prayer-area
Prayer rooms are located in terminals 1 (city side) and 2F and 2E at CDG. This group prayer took place in 2B. Are the gates of 2B connected airside to either 2F or 2E? How long would it have taken to get to a prayer room and would that have required leaving the secure (air) side and re-clearing security?
It has been a LONG time since I connected through CDG and after doing it once I’ve avoided it in favor of AMS. Is it reasonable to expect people departing from 2B to go to/from 2F for prayers?
Oh dear, is this really a road you want to go down. First Islam is ‘false’, then Judaism. what next: Hinduism or Buddhism? Comments such as that border on arrogance.
Yep, those too.
But I unequivocally defend your right to practice the faith you choose to the extent that it does not impact others from doing the same.
I wonder if there would have been such outrage if it were christians praying instead of muslims.
Or rather, “wonder” is perhaps not to word, I have a pretty good guess about the answer…
I had the same exact thought. If this were some dippy bullshit “prayer circle” of Christians – be they Catholic or some other protestant flavor – would there be outrage? The only thing I can think of that might set the two apart would be that the manner in which many (most?) Christians pray is less…theatrical than the methodology of Islam. So, Christian prayer is, by nature, less “intrusive” or “demonstrative” than a gaggle of folks taking up lots of floor real estate. Still, though, I’d love to see some Fundy bible-thumper start screaming about repentance and gays/masturbators/women-out-of-the-kitchen going to hell and all that other crap, then getting likewise demonized in the French and international press.
Islam is violent.
Aren’t you of the people who claim guns don’t kill people, people kill people?
Religion is not a gun. People of all major world religions and of no religion too are violent, and yet it seems like those from Christian majority countries have committed more global violence in the course of the last 1000 years than any other peoples. That’s not on Christianity, it’s on power-hungry xenophobes being just that regardless of religion.
France is not and will not be a muslim country.
Islam is a political ideology that’s about as terrible as nazism. Anyone defending islam will get what’s coming to them.
Given Muslims are a minority in France — not even 10% of the population — and most of those recognized as Muslims aren’t fans of theocracy — it’s a given France will never be a Muslim country. They and their ancestors knew that going in.
France’s most common religion is Catholicism, and all major world religions are socio-political ideologies. Islam is no different in that regard, and there is nothing in common between Islam and Nazism — except in the ignorance-based dreams of the wingnuts who are ignorant about Islam’s anti-racism directives and its accompanying directives to respect the religious freedom of Christians and Jews and want to ethnically cleanse and exterminate Muslims in Europe like the Nazis did with Jews and Roma.
Well, also the US Constitution “explicitly” reserves the right of any crazy moron to have a dozen machine guns or being openly racist or homophobic.
Anyway…
Lefties are mentally ill and you just proved that once again.
People like you shouldn’t be allowed to vote.
Fascist much? Why are you afraid of people voting in a way that you may not like, or are you a snowflake? And aren’t you still hung up and whining about Lord Trump’s “stolen election” defeat in 2020?
Democracy isn’t democracy if you get your way.
Oh look, it’s GUWonder.
Less than a month ago, he was asking for more videos of babies being burned alive because ‘they were Jews’.
This is a real-life Nazi. Like an actual Nazi. He lives in Sweden, but is an American KKK style Nazi.
LJ,
You and your lies about me never end, but carry on with your endless, baseless blood libel against a person who despises all killing of innocent lives by militant actors — be the perpetrators state actors, state-sponsored actors, or non-state actors. And my standards are uniform regardless of religious affinities of the perpetrators and victims.
Another $ donation from me to the SPLC, as they do great work against the KKK, Nazis, other white supremacist and antisemitic groups and Islamophobic groups.
I live in the US and have spent more nights in the US this month than in Sweden. ;). I also happen to have spent more days in Denmark and Belgium than in Sweden — but less than in the US — this fall. But your ignorance continues to be unsurprising to me, just as with your lies. Now go back to your Lord Trump and Master War Criminal Netanyahu — you know, the very Netanyahu who supported Hamas and repeatedly supported direct and indirect financing of Hamas.
I have the receipts, GUWonder. From across several sites.
I’ve seen “group” prayers out in the open at continental European airports for decades. The first large one I noticed was at MXP with a lot of ultra-orthodox Jewish males. I thought great that people feel comfortable doing this in public in what was the land of Mussolini. Wish it were the same way for Jewish and Muslim group prayers at the airport in what is we the land of the Vichy regime.
The history off bigotry against Islam is a long and brutal one in France where so-called national secularism has been a veil for racism and to pretend as if all French people will be treated equally if they just put themselves into a mold of the French version of “Soviet man”.
I’m an atheist and have no problem with y’all praying to whichever one of the 3,000 or so invisible gods on the menu you want to choose from. What I have a problem with is when those same people get elected to office and then want to write laws that want to make everyone else do or not do what their invisible god tells them to do. Like, prevent homosexuals from getting married, or banning birth control pills, or you know, killing you for leaving the religion, which is the penalty for apostasy on Islam. Worship whoever you want, but stop writing laws telling me that I can’t buy beer at Costco at 10am on a Sunday because I should be at church worshiping your particular version of an invisible man in the sky.
I always find it amusing and sad when people try to define other people’s faiths for other people.
So-called apostasy — for a whole lot of Muslims — is a judgment reserved for their deity as faith is between person and their deity free of intermediary in the here and now. That there are extremists and other political players meddling in fundamental religious matters doesn’t change the fact that “there is no compulsion in faith” in the faith of a whole lot of Muslims.
Fear is islam is justified. It’s a violent religion practiced by vermin.
We are seeing it more today. Just look at the attacks on Israel. I’m not surprised you are an apologist for it.
No true Christian would ever use words that nullify our lord,like Xnity,Xtian,etc,which began in the use by non Christians using Xmas at the holidays.
You’ve been misinformed.
https://www.vox.com/2014/12/14/7374401/jesus-xmas-christmas
Maybe it’s time you turned in your Christian card and went for the full jewish conversion,hey,Netanyahu who you support(3,000 dead Palestinianchildren,many Christian btw, seems never enough),has a wife who was born a shiksa.Youd fit right in.
No, I’ll stick to Jesus.
Jesus was Jewish. A Jewish rebel but still Jewish. Not sure if he ate pork or not, but assuming he was born male and not transgender, he was likely circumcised and raised to adhere to Jewish dietary rules. My understanding is that some of the early Christian proselytizers decided they had to give up some Jewish practices in order to attract non-Jewish male converts since it wasn’t a sexy religious sale to get adult men lined up for a snip below the belt, or to try to get them to give up their non-kosher habits. Even the idea of the trinity was likely a compromise pursued to attract converts to Christianity.
Getting closer to Jesus by converting to Judaism seems like one possible faith path.
Bibi’s wife was always Jewish. Wow people make up garbage.
He’s had more than one wife,left and divorced his pregnant, born jewish ,wife for british shiksa Fleur Cates,she converted to judaism.That ended too.
You’re Hamas apologist
Spouting Hamas propaganda.
Terrorist enabler.
Netanyahu has long been a terrorist enabler. Netanyahu even kept pushing Qatar to keep the money flowing to Hamas and then asked them to restart and keep the money flowing to Hamas when Qatar stopped.
My bet is that Hamas-enabler Netanyahu won’t be Prime Minister 12 months from now.
Then drop the X in reference to his name and divinity.Just an FYI Netanyahu has very little support in Israel.Chess legend Bobby Fischer,whose genius IQ was over 180(so naturally labelled a kook by many),was so outraged by Israeli mistreatment of Palestnians,he demanded his name be removed from the book of notable Jewish Americans.
That seems sort of foolish, doesn’t it?
Not really.Whats foolish ,and worse,is Netanyahu sending young people to die,while his son is living the good life in Miami Beach.
It became a public issue, and so his man-child prince was told to go put on a public service display in Florida in support of the Israeli war effort a few weeks ago. The womanizing party animal has a rather unseemly approach to many things, and given it’s not all that rare for the apple to fall close to the apple tree that bore it, I can’t help but think it’s like Trump with his KKK-supporting father: the bigotry takes root and finds cover at home.
Israel is rallying behind BiBi.
They have turned on the anti reform protestors. They made Israel weak and allowed Hamas to attack
Europe’s free speech laws are curious at best:
1. France recently banned all pro Palestinian protests.
2. Several European countries criminalize Holocaust denial. Isn’t the whole premise of free speech to shine a light on these ignorant morons and allow society to judge them.
3. I despise all religions equally, but we all know a group Christian prayer would not have evoked the same response.
The EUropean governments — and even the British government — are no great friends of freedom of speech, expression and assembly; and the shallowness of claiming to be a land of liberty, equality and fraternity were on full display in France last month. And various other parts of the EU/Schengen area also have their own failings with respecting freedom of speech, expression and assembly. For example, it was not that long ago that the police in a NATO EU country came by to tell residential property owners that they can’t legally fly the US flag on their properly because they hadn’t sought prior approval and had not received authorization. Prior restraint on speech, expression and assembly is the friend of the authoritarian impulse of governments and of the mob as much as it is an opponent to liberty and equality for all.
So, can I shout “Allahu Akbar“ multiple times in a US airport without being arrested, shot or tazed?
Disturbing the peace or disorderly conduct isn’t part and parcel of people legally saying a normal tone of voice that “God is great” in Arabic out in the open at US airports. They can do so without getting legally attacked by law enforcement at US airports.
Do it in private. No one wants to see them doing their silly rituals in public.
So close your eyes or turn the other way. Simple.
That would be my standard response upon seeing your ugly mug but with a big crowd of people making noise it is a bit hard.
Silly or not in public or anywhere else, respect for and freedom of religious expression counts for something when it comes to having a healthy and well-functioning democratic republic. In a world where governments aren’t saints and good morality matters for the maintenance and development of humanity, religions act as intergenerational cultural packages of conveyed morality and other knowledge and provide a necessarily separate narrative to the prevailing winds of the ruling governments of the day and mobocracy.
Religious institutions/actors, independent media, and freedom of speech, expression and assembly in public are necessary for governing powers to be held to account by the public and to face a social check and balance and useful friction in the exercise of political power over the public.
Seriously, shut up. You’re on every single comment spewing your hatred and defense of antisemitism.
GUWonder, quit. Stop. You’re a pest. And a Nazi.
Your imagination and lies know no boundary, so it’s no surprise you make baseless claims that try to flag an anti-racism advocate as a Nazi. My online posting career in this space began with my expressing strong opposition to racist profiling of Jewish travelers at ports of entry.
I am proud to be considered a pest by bigoted extremists such as you, and so your mischaracterization and attacks directed toward me are worn by a badge of honor by me. LJ, you can continue to carry on acting like Goebbels, but your lie-based propaganda is just that: lie-based propaganda without a leg to stand on.
It’s an affront to those who fought the Muslim invasion of Spain and France to rid us of enslavement in Europe after the Arab conquest starting in the 700s. Muslim migration to historical White countries is genocide and those who enable it are criminals of the highest degree. It just so happens that the globalists who push open borders with their control of politicians, bureaucrats, the education system, and the media are the same ones who oppose open borders for israel.
The secular argument is juvenile. We should just admit it is unnatural for different groups to be living together and it is disgusting to see our beautiful europe turn into the third world with third world populations. All actions to end immigration and reduce the non European population in Europe to 0 are 100% justified no matter what those actions are. Charles Martel was a saint.
The so-called Christian invasions across Europe were more comprehensive and brutal — and gave the world more global medieval and modern anti-semitism — than the so-called Muslim invasions of Europe.
Gospel of Matthew 7.1 (my favorite) We need to stop the religious judgement. Everyone can believe, or not, as they choose, but respectfully do not impose your beliefs on others. If only it could be that easy.
I’ve always enjoyed your commentaries, but I am truly shocked that you would refer to a religion not your own as a “false religion.” I’ve changed my mind about your columns and about you.
The Abrahamic religions make truth claims. Christianity makes an exclusivity claim. How can one simultaneously believe in a faith and reject what we may find uncomfortable or unsavory about it without simply creating a deity in our own image? You think all roads lead to the top of the mountain? Have you been to the top of the mountain? This is an extremely complicated subject but do not mistake my “false” characterization as a lack of respect.
I mean no disrespect. The point was that even though I do not believe in that particular faith system, I strongly believe in a right of free expression.
Characterizing the religions of others as “false religions” has a a long and problematic history if only because it’s been used as a way to undermine religious liberty and dehumanize people all around the world for probably as long as people have acted upon a religious impulse within. In fact, all religions are true religions upon having even but one of their own honest believers; otherwise, they aren’t religions at all.
I had an associate who was a sort of religious fundamentalist of a Sunni possibly Sunni-Sufi strain. He was insistent that his religion had Abraham, Moses, and Jesus as being “good Muslims” even before the historical founding of Islam and that their shared deity created mankind to have many tribes with their own ways to worship and live and for them to know each other and to get along with respect for one and all as equally loved creations of the same singular deity expressed and accepted differently by the various tribes of humanity. His Islam was nothing like the Wahhabism Islam that was a geographical dead-end until the Saudi oil money and war against the “godless Commies” combined together with that other religious homeland state born in the aftermath of WW2 that went on to develop a nuclear arsenal of its own.
If one is an actual Christian, of course he or she will say all others are false religions. The Bible is pretty clear about it.
Perhaps God has chosen to reveal himself differently to different people’s?Nobel prize winning German Jewish physicist Max Born(grandfather to Olivia Newton John),father of quantum physics,came to the conclusion God does roll the dice and there can be many equally valid truths.His good friend Einstein disagreed.
With or without a supernatural power rolling the dice, people would be inclined to roll the dice on religious beliefs if only because the curious and insecure natures of the
species with a language capability for thinking about both nature and the abstract means an explanation is sought for comfort and assistance sought for power in the fights of man v self, man v man, and man v nature. Religion would be invented even in the absence of any deity — nature of the species.
Very logical,but faith has nothing to do with logic,pragmatism,etc.no more than string theory,higgs particle,etc can be realized through the naked eye and logic.As the bible states,I believe all our theological speculation is “Through a Glass Darkly” in this dimension.
Asa, after Einstein made that statement, physicist Neils Bohr is reputed to have said, “don’t tell God what to do.”
Looks like a group tour traveling to a Muslim country. I see no problem with them praying before their flight.
I guess I’ll ask the question that isn’t going down the Christian angle.
How does your German wife feel about this? Obviously, Germans don’t have the same secular-first view as the French but, I don’t think, they also have the other end of the spectrum where the right of religion nearly anywhere is protected by the constitution.
Just curious what a German reaction to this would be. I think I could predict a British response.
>I think Islam is a false religion, but I support the right of Muslims to gather together and pray and the militant secularism of France has always rubbed me the wrong way, as seen once again at Paris CDG Airport.
You’re hopelessly naïve. Name me ONE place with muslim immigration that hasn’t gotten worse. There’s no assimilation. No adoption of host culture.
Only a relentless victim mentality push for ‘rights’ they’d never afford to anyone else, until they’re enough to take over.
Out. Out. Out.
The US and Canada. The UK would also be a lot worse off if not for Muslim immigrants. And there are countries in Latin America that also would be worse off if not for the “turcos” of various faiths, Muslims included.
Hahahaha, oh boy.
Let’s ask the rape victims of Rotherham how they feel about it. Is that what gets you off, GUWonder? Rape?
LJ, you are very perverted in your thinking and come across as a bigot who loves to assign crimes for the purposes of communal guilt and communal punishment. Obviously, you don’t really care about justice and the rule of law when being a fan of communal guilt and communal punishment as you are. 85 years ago, Hitler would have found you quite the ally then, as you seem cut from sort of the same cloth as Ernst Rohm with your fantasies.
The bottom line is that it is irrelevant what any of us think of French policy. It is their policy based on their laws in their airport. With well-identified places of worship available, the act of taking over a public lounge area in and of itself was provocation and should be severely punished. Religious freedom is NOT an excuse to flagrantly, blatantly violate local law.
For Jewish travelers, is it prohibited to daven in public in a large minyan at CDG? If so, what a ridiculous encroachment on personal and group liberties in the so-called land of liberty, equality and fraternity.
Several years ago, I saw a group of orthodox Jews held a prayer meeting next to the LOT Polish gate at JFK Terminal 7 just prior to departure. No one said anything!! Those in the hall were more focused to a timely departure of the jet.
Thankfully, this is protected speech in the USA.
I’ve seen the same kind of thing at LH Group airline hub airports with service to/from TLV and at MXP too. Given what happened to Jewish communities in those European Axis countries and other occupied lands, I find hope in the contemporary public expression of religious minorities being able to publicly worship without intimidation from state actors or anyone else for that matter. Freedom of expression and freedom of assembly — including that of the religious sort — are worth defending and the state should not stack the playing field against liberties of this sort.
Earlier this year when I was more or less living out of CDG, I would have traded for this Muslim praying “crowd” for a more orderly and relaxing CDG terminal experience than the crowded standing room only mess I repeatedly faced in trying to catch my AF flights to eastern and northern points of the EU.
My only concern is that they appear to be in the way. That’s selfish behavior whether it’s prayer or pilates.