.EVERY FEW years the French acquire worked up concerning a product of religious clothes that they regard as unacceptable in the classroom. This time a dispute has actually burst out at la rentru00e9e, the start of the brand-new year, over a federal government selection to prohibit from condition institutions the abaya, an uncut robe worn through some Muslim ladies for quietness. To individuals in countries with a custom of liberal multiculturalism, the restriction appears like an unwanted infraction of the right to religious expression.
To guardians of a strict version of French secularism, it is actually a procedure necessary to secure the state from spiritual interference. Why is France thus worried concerning Muslim dress in its universities?