French schools ordered to reinstate no-pork lunches for Jewish, Muslim students

Judge rules that lack of alternative ‘not in keeping with the spirit’ of international convention on children’s rights

By JTA 31 August 2017, 3:57 am

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In this May 6, 2014 file photo, French chef Xavier Lebeau poses with a plate of Quenelles de Brochet (pike fish) with Green Haricot beans and Champignons de Paris (Paris mushrooms), at the Saint Pierre de Chaillot school in Paris, France. France has been grappling with how to reconcile religious beliefs with secular values when it comes to pork in school lunches, with one lawmaker’s solution: vegetarian meals. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, File)

A French court has ruled that schools should provide an alternative to lunches containing pork for Muslim and Jewish students.

The decision on Monday came after a Muslim organization sued the local authority at Chalon-sur-Saône in Burgundy, about 180 miles from Paris in east-central France, challenging its decision in 2015 to stop providing a no-pork alternative in its school cafeterias.

The Muslim Legal Defense League called the initial decision “illegal, discriminatory and a violation of the freedom of conscience and religion.”

The judge said he made the ruling because, due to the lack of an alternative, many local Muslim children went without lunch, which is “not in keeping with the spirit of the international convention on the rights of children” and not “in the interests of the children,” The Guardian reported.

He said religion was not a consideration.

French National Front party leader Marine Le Pen said in a 2014 interview that no-pork options for Jewish and Muslim students would no longer be offered in school menus in the 11 towns where France’s far-right National Front party won local elections.