French PM slams local Mayor for profiling Muslim school children

PARIS, May 5 (KUNA) -- France's Prime Minister Manuel Valls slammed here Tuesday the Mayor of a French town for compiling listings and profiling Muslim school children based on their names.
"This practice is not only illegal...it is contrary to the values of the Republic," Valls told parliamentary question time.
Robert Menard, the extreme-right National Front Mayor of Beziers, in southern France, ordered schools to compile data on children and classify their supposed religion on the basis of their names.
"This brings shame on the mandate that was given (to Menard)," Valls added, warning that the government would not let this pass without action.
The Prime Minister recalled that France is a secular society that does not recognise people by name, colour of skin or religion.
"The reality of the extreme right can seen there," Valls said of the profiling incident. He said the extreme right National Front has changed nothing from its past acts.
He said that "we must fight without the slightest ambiguity, with the slightest hesitation any attempts that attack what makes up our unity, our cohesion and our most precious possession, our schools." "Such acts cannot remain without consequences," the Prime Minister said, indicating that local prosecutors in the Beziers region would be instructed by the Education Minister to take the necessary steps to "protect the school children" of Beziers " and put an immediate end to this practice" of profiling.
"The government will be intransigent and will let nothing get by. It is now up to the Mayor of Beziers to answer in front of the courts," Valls remarked. (end) jk.mt