CAIRO —  For Mohamed-Ali Bouharb, the soul-searching journey of hajj he plans to embark on this year will be exceptional, since the Muslim soldier will be traveling all the way to the holy sites on a special trip provided by the army of the secular European country. "The army is always in advance of society," a jubilant Captain Bouharb told the Globe & Mail on Tuesday, September 15.

For this year’s hajj, Muslims in the French army who will go on the journey to Saudi Arabia will not have to travel on private commercial flights with ordinary civilians.

In a break from tradition, the Defense Ministry will provide its Muslim soldiers a plane to fly them and organize their stay.

The new hajj journey is the first to be sponsored by the army for Muslim personnel. 

Longtime before, the army has sponsored annual trips for its soldiers to Catholic shrines in Lourdes with its long history of bonds with the Catholic Church.

Soldiers and officers willing to embark on the hajj journey next November would pay about €3,000, an amount less than most private travel agencies.

On the other hand, accommodation and guide will be provided by the Saudi Defense Ministry.

Muslim soldiers hailed the army's upcoming hajj trip for providing them security.

Military personnel who travel on their own for the hajj could fall victim "to thieves or swindlers or disreputable travel agencies," Bouharb said.

"Or imagine the situation of a serviceman who goes on his own and stays in a place where there's some incident – I don't know what kind, but maybe a bomb or a fire."

Hajj, Makkah pilgrimage, is one of the five pillars of Islam.

Every able-bodied adult Muslim -- who can financially afford the trip -- must perform hajj once in their lifetime.

There are nearly seven million Muslims in France, making up the biggest Muslim minority in Europe.

Changing Atmosphere

While arranging a hajj trip would be unusual for any Western government, it is especially extraordinary in France, a Catholic country with a strict secular tradition.

Some like Bouharb insist that the army remains insulated from the wrangling and heated debates on secularism and thorny issues regarding he Muslim community, like the recent furor over Muslim women burqa.

"It the army is anaesthetized from all the social questions and debate outside."

Yet, experts say Islam in the French military was not on an equal footing with other faiths.

The Defence Ministry created a Muslim chaplaincy only in 2005, long after it had established Catholic, Protestant and Jewish offices.

The atmosphere, however, is changing in army with a number of new policies that better accommodated Muslim personnel, like the hajj trips.

"Soldiers I've interviewed say it was hard to be Muslim in the armed forces until a few years ago," said Elyamine Settoul, a doctoral student at the Institute for Political Studies in Paris who has surveyed minorities in the military.

"There were no accommodations for Ramadan," he added.

"If the meals contained pork they weren't offered an alternative. It created tensions. But they say it's much better now."

Other initiatives were designed to help Muslim soldiers understand the history and culture of France.

Last year, the army sent two of its Muslim chaplains to a government-sponsored class on citizenship and secular values for imams, the first of its kind. Another six will attend the course this fall.

“What I knew about secularism going in was what everybody knows,” said Capt. Bouharb, 32, who was one of the first graduates.

“What I learned was its history, all the political debate at the beginning of the 20th century and its legal basis.”

Bouharb also said the course left him embracing his French Muslim identity.

“Even if our parents were not born in France, it's our country.”