French Muslims slam sacking over fasting

Tensions between French authorities and the country’s Islamic community resurfaced on Tuesday after it emerged that four summer camp instructors had been sacked for fasting during Holy Month of Ramadan. In a row that echoed last year’s controversy over a law banning women from wearing full veils on French territory, Muslim leaders denounced a Communist-run town council’s dismissal of the workers on health and safety grounds. The four had been employed temporarily by the town of Genevilliers in the Paris suburbs to help run a summer holiday sports camp in southwestern France. They were dismissed on July 20, the first day of Ramadan, after an inspector visited the camp and told them they were endangering children’s safety by not eating or drinking between dawn and dusk. Although they were fully paid for the week they had remaining on their short-term contracts, the instructors plan to contest their dismissal through labour courts. From gulftoday