French politician proposes foreigners to take French names

As part of a desire for more assimilationist policy, a foreigner who wants to have French passport should be forced to take a French name first, a right-wing French politician said.

As his proposal covers increasing number of Britons seeking refuge from Brexit, Julien Aubert, deputy secretary general of the right-wing Les Républicains party, mainly targets Muslims, as outlined in his 50-page pamphlet titled the "Tricolor Booklet on the Islam(s) of France," which consists of 18 radical proposals, as reported by The Independent.

Aubert also called for Muslim women to be banned from wearing headscarves in public institutions. France has the largest Muslim minority in Europe, estimated at 5 million or more out of a population of 67 million. The place of religion and religious symbols worn in public can be a matter of controversy in the staunchly secular country.

According to French media source Metronews, some 223 fines were handed out in 2015 for wearing a full-face veil in public. It was the first country in Europe to ban Islamic face veils, such as the burqa and the niqab, in public places. France was also this summer embroiled in a row over bans on the burkini, a full-body Islamic swimsuit, in resorts around the Riviera. In October, the U.N. Human Rights Committee criticized France's so-called burqa ban, saying the law "violated" the rights of two women who were fined for wearing full-face veils in public. The committee called for the women to be compensated and for a review of the 2010 law that forbids people from publicly wearing clothing that conceals their face.