Sarkozy to Muslims in France: Will protect you,but…

Faced with swelling unease over the place of Muslim immigrants in France,President Nicolas Sarkozy called on Tuesday for tolerance...

Faced with swelling unease over the place of Muslim immigrants in France,President Nicolas Sarkozy called on Tuesday for tolerance among native French people,but warned that arriving Muslims must embrace Europes historical values and avoid ostentation or provocation in the practice of their religion.

Sarkozys appeal,published by Le Monde,reflected concern that a government-sponsored debate on Frances national identity,sharpened by a recent referendum banning minarets in Switzerland,seemed to be contributing to expressions of anti-Muslim sentiment and generating resentment among Muslim citizens and immigrants.

I address my Muslim countrymen to say I will do everything to make them feel they are citizens like any other,enjoying the same rights as all the others to live their faith and practice their religion with the same liberty and dignity, he said. I will combat any form of discrimination.

But I also want to tell them that in our country,where Christian civilisation has left such a deep trace… everything that could be taken as a challenge to this heritage and its values would condemn to failure the necessary inauguration of a French Islam, he said.

Sarkozy avoided commenting on another test soon to be posed for his government whether Muslim women should be allowed to wear veils.