Leading Muslim cleric Yussef al-Qaradawi has threatened legal action if France adopts a law banning the Islamic headscarf in schools, warning such measures only breed extremism.
"If the law is passed, we will seek to file a legal complaint because this law will be in contradiction with the French constitution," Qaradawi told AFP in an interview on Tuesday.
Qaradawi, an Egyptian who has lived in Qatar for several years and is known across the Arab world for his controversial fatwas or religious rulings, said "measures like banning the headscarf will feed extremism."
He said the European council for fatwas (religious rulings) and research, which he chairs, has called on France to revise its position on the Islamic headscarf and has decided to send a delegation to Paris, led by Mauritania's former justice minister Abdullah bin Baya.
French President Jacques Chirac on December 17 came out in favor of a ban on the Islamic headscarf and other "conspicuous" religious symbols in state schools. He wants the rules written into law by the start of the next academic year.
The decision, intended to reflect France's strict separation of religion and state, has set off a storm of protest by Muslim leaders around the world.
Last month, Qaradawi asked Chirac to "go back on his decision" and said in a letter addressed to the French ambassador in Qatar that he was saddened by the proposed ban.
Qaradawi's letter condemned "this unrelenting attack on the precepts of Islam by France, a country of liberty and tolerance."