Originally posted by Rictor
But how is wearing headscarves incompatible with being French. Unless they want to impose some sort of cultural unifromity, which these days most Western nations have accepted as impossible. Sure, you can be a French Muslim, but that doesn't mean you have to renounce being a Muslim.
As long as it harms no one, there is no reason to ban it. What France is doing here is actually limiting religious freedom and tolerance.
Yes, private schools exists, but there is no reason why public school should not be an viable option.
Man, I'll just go on talking to myself...
Muslim men, the more extreme the more this is true, look down on non-Muslims to some extent. Now, it's OK for men because the non-Muslim men are not walking around blatantly displaying themselves in a way that the Muslims find offensive. This is not true of the women. I personally don't know of any case (in France) where anyone's been harmed, but they don't come close to treating the average French woman with anywhere near the amount of respect that is socially acceptable (you can imagine). This is not necesssarily following the tolerance that some interpretations of Islam is supposed to preach, but the mid-eastern interpretation is influenced very much by thier culture, which is not very tolerant (I have met and work with and am related to many people who are from and have lived in the mid-east and they are very, very nice people, and incredibly generous... but not always very tolerant of differences). This is threatening (some may say harmful) to the French culture and their values. Then again, the French culture is not incredibly tolerant either... as it seems...
An attack on French culture is an attack on France herself... or something like that...
However, this is STRONGLY dependent (as with all religeons that people follow BLINDLY) upon the INTERPRETATION of the holy texts. So you will find some forms of Islam that feel very differently than others about how (much)-poorly women may be (mutilated)-treated. I for one do not believe Islam to permit some of the horrible attrocities that some cultures perpetrate upon women in the name of Islam.
Here is just ONE example that came up first in my 5-second google search, (
Tolerant Islam ) of a light example where wives are put in their "place" in the name of Islam. OK boys, when you get married, try getting your wives to agree to all that... (not in America... or France for that matter
let freedom ring...) But many orthodox to ultra-orthodox Muslims treat non-Muslims as non-humans. I haven't studied the Quran... so I don't know if this is justified by the holy texts, it's just how it is. I've had the fortune to be friends with a number of more... liberal Mulsims, who believe just the opposite and that the world is all one community and everyone equal. But these people are not the trouble makers, the rabble rousers, the suicide...
well, you know...
Anyway, France chose not to respond to this intolerence by bending over backwards to let everyone walk over everyone... They respond by leveling the playing field, and letting everyone see each other on the same grounds. Once the Muslim children find this acceptable behavior, then they will grow up to be French Muslims (and probably more liberal) that don't see their Protestant or Catholic or Buddist or Jewish (etc... ad nauseum) French fellows as being anywhere beneath them.
The Muslims feel, justifiably so, that this is threatening at their cultural values. This is becasue they don't yet understand that they're playing with France's ball, and they have to adhere to FRENCH cultural values.
Now Jewish, Catholic, and Muslim children alike can run and play with each other, without the constant remider that they are different. At least until they get out of school and their parents get ahold of them and tell them how horrible their godless friends really are... There's no law against that yet (thankfully).
