Religion in France: Alsace-Lorraine
The 2003 State Department report on religious freedom is out, I see from Christianity Today’s weblog. Here is one place where the State Department does a good job. I read a few of the entries. Here are some excerpts from the part on France. It seems that after World War I, France allowed the churches in Alsace-Lorraine, just acquired from Germany, to retain their state funding.
For historical reasons, the Jewish, Lutheran, Reformed (Protestant), and Roman Catholic groups in three departments of Alsace-Lorraine enjoy special legal status in terms of taxation of individuals donating to these religious groups. Adherents of these four religious groups may choose to have a portion of their income tax allocated to their religious organization in a system administered by the central Government.
Central or local governments own and maintain religious buildings constructed before the 1905 law separating religion and State. In Alsace and Moselle, special laws allow the local governments to provide support for the building of religious edifices. The Government partially funded the establishment of the country’s oldest Islamic house of worship, the Paris mosque, in 1926.