By Kris Kemeny
Yarmulkes, crosses and hijabs have all been banned from French public schools, so why do Muslims feel targeted?
The French National Assembly voted 494 to 36 on February 10, 2004 in favor of a bill that would prohibit the wearing of any conspicuous religious symbols in public schools. On March 3, 2004, the French Senate, with a similarly overwhelming majority of 276 to 20, passed the bill into law (Beller 581). The language of the law, although brief, is clear: “The wearing of symbols or articles of clothing by which students ostensibly display religious affiliations is forbidden in public schools through high school” (qtd. in Vaisse 1). Although it prohibits all obvious religious symbols, including the Jewish skullcap, “large” Christian crosses, and the Islamic headscarf, or hijab, many people feel that the law is an attack on religious freedom in general and on Muslims in particular. Included among the law’s detractors and skeptics are many members of France’s Muslim community and the world Muslim community at large, as well as many international observers. The controversy surrounding this law, which has been dubbed the “Headscarf Affair,” has risen due to misunderstandings of both the French conception of the secular state and the unique position of Islam and its practitioners in France. Thus, only through exploration of these issues can we hope to understand the law and the impassioned sentiments both for and against it.
The French ideal of laïcité, or secularity, flies in the face of the American conception of freedom of religion. Standing in stark contrast to American beliefs about the separation of Church and State valuing government nonintervention in religious matters, French law is more concerned rather with the prevention of religious intrusion in the dealings of the state. This concern is legitimized by France’s past, which is rife with outbursts of religiously motivated violence, most notably the sixteenth century's bloody Wars of Religion. Additionally, the power wielded by the Catholic Church over national politics for much of France’s history necessitated the secularization of France around the turn of the last century. It is not the goal of laïcité to create a nation devoid of religion. Instead, it is intended to foster a spirit of neutrality and égalité, which is itself intended to foster true religious freedom. The emphasis on secularism and democratic neutrality in France’s public sector, particularly in education, reveals the nation’s anxiety over its tumultuous past.
Complete religious freedom, although it is an admirable idea, is unrealistic. Society’s foremost role is to establish and preserve safety and stability. At times, certain religious freedoms must be relinquished for the sake of this over-arching principle. In all democratic states, a delicate balance must be struck between the interest of uninhibited personal religious practice and the need for public order and control. French law gives preference to a greater measure of collective equality — religious neutrality — over what is oft considered a most basic of individual rights: freedom of religious expression. If it can be said, however, that religion is fundamentally institutional, a picture emerges of a society that attempts to position religion, like sex, as a primarily private affair. Religious practices are being relegated to the home and place of worship. The desired result is a civil structure as uncompromised as possible by religious influence.
