WHY NOT SKIP THE BABY STEPS AND JUST SEND THEM STRAIGHT TO THE CAMPS?

French Panel Favours Ban on Muslim Head Scarves in Public Schools (Elaine Ganley, 12/10/03, National Post)

A French presidential commission on Thursday backed a ban on Islamic head scarves in public schools - stepping into the wrenching debate over how to preserve the country's secular identity while integrating France's Muslim population, the largest in western Europe.

If it becomes law, the measure would also bar other conspicuous religious symbols, including Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses. The commission spent six months studying the issue and held 120 hearings, collecting testimony from experts across Europe. [...]

For nearly 15 years, France has debated the issue, but it has taken on new life during the past two years with the expulsion of dozens of girls from school for refusing to remove their scarves.

Bernard Stasi, who headed the commission, said the proposed law was aimed at keeping France's strict secular underpinnings intact and at countering "forces that are trying to destabilize the country," a reference to Islamic fundamentalists.”

Secular progressives pride themselves on preaching tolerance, individual freedom and personal choice. Most will hotly deny any desire to interfere with freedom of religion or hold faith up to ridicule. They are fond of reducing symbols and traditions to the charmingly meaningless and of denying transcendental connections to faith, family, community or nation. They usually oppose the proposition that citizens should be restrained for the good of the community, unless a palpable threat of physical harm can be proven. The argument that communities have shared traditional practices and beliefs they should strive to preserve commonly evokes impatience or disdain.

Now, suddenly, we are introduced to something called a “secular underpinning”, apparently so shaky that schoolgirls must be hassled and forced to betray their deepest beliefs to prop it up. A scarf is no longer just a scarf--it is now a totem that, when placed over the head, magically transforms the wearer from giggling high school student to menacing, irrational subversive. This matter of state is so grave that other, completely unthreatening, faiths must be similarly restricted, presumably to avoid having to go to all this trouble again when they start agitating for a theocracy or dabbling in treason.

Thank goodness we’ve put the era of religious prejudice behind us.

Posted by Peter Burnet at December 13, 2003 05:06 PM