PARIS — Within the coronary heart of the French Republic, the century-old bedrock of laïcité—the strict separation of church and state—is going through its most profound problem in many years. A sweeping new report by the Private Representatives of the OSCE Chair-in-Workplace, following a high-level go to in June 2025, paints a portrait of a nation the place the very precept designed to make sure equality is more and more seen as a instrument of exclusion, surveillance, and “securitization.”
The report, authored by Ambassador Evren Dağdelen Akgün, Rabbi Andrew Baker, and Professor Wolfgang Palaver, provides a sobering evaluation of the “Present Challenges” going through France’s numerous non secular panorama. From the “ambiance of antisemitism” on college campuses to the “collective punishment” felt by Muslim communities, the findings recommend that the French mannequin of universalism is struggling to comprise the rising tides of polarization and prejudice.
A Neighborhood in Retreat: The Jewish Expertise
For the Jews of France—the most important Jewish group in Europe, numbering over 500,000—the report describes a state of “sustained” anxiousness. The manager director of the Consultant Council of Jewish Establishments in France (CRIF) instructed investigators that just about each Jewish household within the nation has not less than thought of emigration.
The report highlights a disturbing “ambiance” on campuses, the place Jewish college students report 10 to twenty violent incidents yearly, typically linked to pro-Palestinian activism. In secondary faculties, the issue manifests as bullying so extreme that many households are withdrawing their kids from public training. But, as a result of French regulation prohibits the gathering of knowledge primarily based on faith, the precise scale of this exodus stays formally invisible—a recurring theme the place the state’s “blindness” to faith hinders its means to deal with particular grievances.
Whereas the federal government has sought to reassure the group—President Emmanuel Macron famously acknowledged that “France with out Jews wouldn’t be France”—group leaders expressed frustration with a justice system they are saying fosters an “ambiance of impunity.” The report additionally notes a major monetary burden: the Jewish group should largely fund its personal safety by the SPCJ, a value not shared by different non secular teams.
The “Securitization” of Islam
If the Jewish group feels unprotected, the Muslim group—France’s second-largest non secular group with roughly 7 million members—feels focused. The OSCE report particulars a “deepening of distrust” between the state and its Muslim residents, pushed by what civil society organizations (CSOs) describe because the “securitization” of their religion.
The 2021 regulation on “separatism,” supposed to bolster Republican values, is seen by many as a mechanism for “collective punishment.” CSOs pointed to the expulsion of imams and the dissolution of organizations beneath “imprecise accusations.” The report highlights a placing discrepancy in justice: whereas 1.2 million individuals in France understand themselves as victims of discrimination, only some hundred instances are recorded yearly, with convictions being “extraordinarily uncommon”—generally as few as zero to 5 per yr.
The report additionally paperwork a “normalized” hostility in media and politics. CNews, now France’s most-watched information channel, was cited by civil society members as broadcasting content material that’s “80% anti-Muslim,” typically amplifying the “nice substitute” concept. The result’s a group that feels obliged to “consistently reveal their loyalty and innocence.”
The Miviludes Controversy: Vigilance or Stigmatization?
Maybe probably the most contentious part of the report considerations the Interministerial Mission for Vigilance and Motion Towards Sectarian Aberrations, often known as Miviludes. Whereas most mainstream Christian denominations view Miviludes as a needed defend towards “sects,” the report reveals a rising refrain of concern concerning its methodology and its influence on non secular freedom.
The report notes a “lack of transparency” and the “absence of a proper to answer” for teams focused by the company. Crucially, it highlights a double normal: the identical actions—akin to public canvassing—which can be accepted from mainstream religions are labeled as “aberrations” when practiced by minority communities like Jehovah’s Witnesses or Scientologists.
The strain is most acute concerning the Church of Scientology. The 2025 Miviludes report features a devoted web page on the group that successfully treats it as a “cult.” Based on the OSCE report, this classification “fuels discrimination and stigmatization towards Scientologists.”
The implications of this labeling are usually not merely rhetorical. The report particulars how state officers, together with the Councilor for Non secular Affairs on the Ministry of Overseas Affairs, have refused to even meet with Scientology representatives, justifying the snub by labeling them a “cult.” This “issue in constructing dialogue” means that for sure teams, the protections of laïcité are successfully suspended.
The “Anti-Non secular” Drift of Laïcité
The OSCE representatives conclude that the “unique method” of the 1905 regulation—a liberal framework of separation—has drifted into an “anti-religious method” that seeks to “take away all non secular expression from the general public sq..”
The 2004 regulation banning conspicuous non secular symbols in faculties is a major instance. Whereas framed as common, the report notes it “primarily targets minorities, significantly Muslim communities.” For the Sikh group, this has meant college students being pressured to chop their hair and being pressured to take away turbans for official ID pictures—a requirement not present in neighboring Italy or Belgium.
The report additionally touches on the plight of the Roma and Sinti communities, who face “widespread anti-Gypsyism” and “institutionalized segregation.” In lots of municipalities, Vacationers are denied primary rights like training and healthcare as a result of they lack a hard and fast tackle—a bureaucratic catch-22 that leaves them “criminalized” for his or her cellular lifestyle.
A Republic at a Crossroads
As France strikes towards the 2027 elections, the report warns that far-right discourse is being “normalized” and adopted by mainstream events. The “universalist method” of the French state, which refuses to acknowledge ethnic or non secular minorities in laws, is more and more seen as a barrier to justice fairly than a guarantor of it.
“The norms on addressing racism and intolerance are good,” the Secretary Normal of the Nationwide Consultative Fee on Human Rights (CNCDH) instructed the investigators. “The issue is implementation.”
For a nation that prides itself on Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité, the OSCE report serves as a stark reminder that when “equality” is used to disregard the particular realities of discrimination, it may inadvertently foster the very divisions it seeks to heal. Within the streets of Paris and the suburbs of Lyon, the query is now not simply in regards to the function of faith within the state, however whether or not the state can nonetheless see all its residents—no matter their religion—as really equal.
