Secular . . . or anti-Islamic?

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On Feb. 10, 2004, the French National Assembly voted 494-39 to prohibit the wearing of Islamic head scarves in public schools. The prohibition is facially evenhanded among religions in forbidding "signs and dress that conspicuously show the religious affiliation of students."

Its ostensible purpose is to protect a secular state. According to Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin in hailing the magnitude of the legislative triumph, "The Republic and secularism are strengthened."

But the timing and arguments surrounding the legislation show an anti-Islamic motivation. Its secular state justification is patently bogus. And the prohibition on religious garb has already inflamed France's climbing Muslim population and weakened national unity.

The bill was introduced after French Muslims had surged to 5 million and fears of Islamic terrorism had spiked in the wake of September 11, 2001. France's prevailing separation of church and state, decreed in 1905 by the Third Republic, accommodates religion in public life. The eastern provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, for instance, which were German in 1905, maintain a Concordat relationship with Paris that enables clergy to receive government salaries.

Article 1 of the French Constitution enjoins both secularism and respect of all beliefs: "France is a Republic, indivisible, secular, democratic and social. It shall ensure the equality of citizens before the law, without distinction of origin, race or religion. It shall respect all beliefs." In 1989, the French Constitutional Council declared illegal a blanket school ban on religious signs.

French governments have occasionally voiced squeamishness about religious symbols in public schools. In 1937, the education minister instructed head teachers to exclude religious signs from their establishments. A successor in 1994 maintained that "ostentatious" signs could be banned, but left the interpretation and administration of the opaque announcement to head teachers.

The French government's contemporary epiphany about an immaculate school separation of church and state, however, was sparked by the spread of Islam, a recent religion on French territory.

In an address to the nation on Dec. 17, 2003, President Jacques Chirac unconvincingly asserted the urgency of excluding student symbols of religious affiliation to preserve the principle of secularism enshrined in the French Constitution. But the president was unable to cite even one incident where religious garb or signs had either sabotaged secular education, undermined obedience to secular laws, disturbed the school environment, or interfered with the rights of classmates to be secure or to be let alone. He argued that, "[Secularism] expresses our wish to live together in respect, dialogue and tolerance. Secularism guarantees freedom of conscience. It protects the freedom to believe or not to believe."

Banning head scarves, Jewish skullcaps or large Christian crucifixes worn to celebrate a student's religious creed, however, epitomizes intolerance, not mutual respect or dialogue over differences. The prohibition violates freedom of conscience and demands a conformity that wars with individual liberty.