"The Hand of Fatima" that many Muslims in France carry as a sign of faith is a superstitious throwback to paganism and has nothing to do with religion, according to Islamic scholars here.
The image has been in the news recently with French President Jacques Chirac's call for the banning of religious symbols, including the Muslim veil for girls, in the secular state school system.
The Fatima amulet is called a Khamsa in Algeria, from the Arabic word for five, and is seen as protection against the "evil eye." The amulet consists of five spread fingers, often with an eye on the back of the hand.
Scholars here said the hand design turns up on prehistoric archaeology sites and was probably associated originally with protective virtues.
The evil or wandering eye is recognized by Islam. Mohammed the Prophet spoke of it, but he told his disciples to recite verses from the Koran to avert it, and never recommended carrying the Khamsa, "a distant souvenir of paganism like talismans and other cabalistic symbols," said Cheikh Youcef, imam at an Algiers mosque.
The imam said signs of piety such as the beard for men and the veil for women were not part of the faith but were necessary to distinguish between the sexes. "Effeminate men and women with a virile aspect are condemned to Gehennem by Islam," he said, referring to a place of damnation.
Scholars here note that according to the Koran, the face of women is not to be covered as radical Islamists demand - probably to prevent men passing themselves off as women.
In a religion program on Algerian television that answers questions from members of the public, two theology professors, Kamel Bouzidi and Abdelhamid Kaaba, affirm that "fetishes" believed to convey magic qualities correspond to pagan and anti-Islamic beliefs.
They said the Hand of Fatima, medals containing verses from the Koran and even illuminated paintings from the Koran that some Muslims hang on the wall should all be banned.
The two theologians also argue that the veil is not a distinctive sign of faith, but that it has developed to protect women against harassment by men.
"There is no single model for the veil," Bouzidi said. "It can be a long dress, neither clinging nor transparent, a scarf round the neck or a bonnet covering the head - all these are perfectly compatible with Sharia," or Islamic law.
Students in Algiers said they were amazed at the scale of the debate over the Islamic headscarf in France.
Salima, an 18-year-old high school student wearing jeans, tight tee-shirt and a Fatima pendant, said it betrayed intolerance toward Islam born out of fear of extremism.
A law that Chirac wants the National Assembly to adopt would ban the Islamic veil, the Jewish Yarmulka and large versions of the Christian crucifix. Salima said the real target was the headscarf and that including the other religious symbols was "a way of getting people to swallow the pill."
Salima said that in Algiers, where Islam is the state religion, "no one ever stopped me going to school in jeans, short skirts or with a low neckline."
Government authorities here have remained deaf to repeated injunctions from strict Muslims to impose an "Islamic" mode of dress on women.
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