COVERING OVER ISLAM IN A HEADSCARF

Where do you draw the line between maintaining a secular state and allowing freedom of expression? Today, the French National Assembly will vote on a resolution to ban the display of religious symbols--Muslim headscarves, crucifixes worn on a chain around the neck, and yarmulkes--in public schools. The plan has set off a raging debate in France and elsewhere. Has the post-9/11 world changed the way we look at anything to do with the Islamic faith? Apparently so!

France has the largest Muslim population in Europeósome 5 million strong. And from what the media reports, there is a feeling among some that the population has failed to assimilate into mainstream French culture and society. So the French government decided that the banning of headscarves in public schools would help that process. But of course, since itís a move widely viewed as discriminatory and anti-Islamic, there has been an immediate backlash. As a result, the ban was broadened to include religious symbols-- crosses and yarmulkes --to make it an issue about secularism, and not Islam. But it hasn't been seen that way. Many Muslims see it as an assault on their faith, and it has emboldened many who might not be inclined to do so to now display their faith publicly. You know how it goesÖ when youíre 15-years-old and your mother doesn't want you to wear that old sweatshirt or those ratty sneakers, that's exactly what you wear. The most effective way to get people to do something is to ban them from doing it.

The furor in France raises issues that are important for a country like the United States. In a society that prides itself on the separation of church and state, what is an appropriate public display of religion that doesn't interfere with the notion of secularism? Itís a tough issue made even more emotional by the seemingly intuitive reaction people have towards headscarves. For some the headscarf is a symbol of oppression, while for others itís a symbol of a woman's strength. In a free society, shouldn't people be free to demonstrate their faith? And with the free world at war with terrorism, how do you balance the instinct to brand many of the Islamic faith as suspicious people, and the need to see people of faith as individuals, allowing them to practice their faith without interfering for political or security reasons?

American schools go through this same kind of thing. Can you wear religious garb in public high schools? Do high schools journalists have the same freedoms of speech that adults do? Are dress codes (of any type) constitutional? I say that we allow religious garb of any type at any time. Free society demands it. A free secular society requires it.