Sikhs, Muslims must respect our tradition: Sarkozy
29 Sep 2008, 2028 hrs
IST,PTI
MARSEILLES: Insisting that France is not
discriminating against Sikhs wearing turbans, President Nicholas
Sarkozy on Monday said that he expects the community to respect
the customs and traditions of the French people.
"We respect their traditions and customs and I hope they also
respect
France's rules," Sarkozy said in a joint
interaction with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who also belongs
to the Sikh community, after the India-EU summit.
"We respect Sikhs, their customs, their traditions. They are
most welcome to France. But we have rules concerning the
neutrality of the civil servants, rules concerning secularism
and these rules don't apply to just Sikhs, they apply to the
Muslims, they apply to all on the territory of the French
Republic." Sarkozy said.
France in 2004 had imposed a ban under which Sikh students were
prohibited from wearing turbans to schools, a decision that has
incurred world-wide protests from the community.