According to him “Secularism is not negotiable. The schools will remain secular. The Muslim veil, whatever name it is given, the kippa (the Jewish skullcap also known as a yarmulke), or the cross, if of manifestly excessive dimensions, don’t have a place in the walls of public schools. Small, discreet signs, like tiny crosses or stars of David should be allowed.” He further added that the private businesses should be allowed to ban their Muslim employees from wearing headscarves “for reasons of security or client contact. Moreover the patients at public hospitals should not be allowed to refuse treatment from doctors of the opposite sex. Some French Muslim men reportedly have refused to allow male doctors to treat their wives.

In the year 1989, the scarves sparked the debate for the first time. In that year the Ayatollah Khomeni issued his fatwa against Salman Rushdie, Algeria�

The government wants to ban all religious symbols from public schools because they violate the separation of church and state. However, France has really had no problems with such symbols since church and state were separated in the early 1900s. The reason for the change in attitude is simple. It is the veil that is dangerous, and the government feels it needs to tie it in with other religious symbols in order to get rid of it. The French government fails to understand that for those who believe in it, the veil is an essential requirement for being a Muslim, an integral part of the religion. It is not just another sign that one puts on and takes off at will. The nation’s effort to integrate its Muslim citizens is commendable. Yet banning the veil borders on religious oppression and denial of religious freedom.

Banning headscarves in French schools will not relieve these factors. It will not ease the frustrations of young unemployed Algerians; it will not ease the anger of the Muslims in Paris and Lyons on the foreign occupation of Iraq and Palestine. How then will it curb the spread of radical ideology among French Muslims? Scarf ban is a denial not of the practice of fundamentalist Islam but of mainstream moderate Islam.

The root causes of Islamic extremism, as identified by innumerable studies of different Muslim societies are, generally very straightforward: denial of political freedom, economic hardship, attacks on their religio-cultural identity, oppression and injustice. In the present scenario US policies in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East have been the main catalysts for Muslim militancy. In the case of France two big factors are socio-economic frustration and international sore points like Iraq and Palestine.

France is a country of immigrants. French intellectuals point to the nation’s ability to integrate new comers as proof of the power of its institutions and ideology. In the twentieth century Spaniards and Italians, Poles and Russians came to France and they or at least their children became accepted as French. These immigrants came as individuals, lived among French men and women, resembled them physically and for the most part professed catholic, Russian orthodox or Jewish faiths. Their arrival did not bring much change to the look

Some topics in this essay:
Muslims Scarf, French Living, Religion French, Jacques Chirac, Arabia Iran, Algeria’s Islamist, French Muslims, Bernard Stasi, Russians France, France France, religious symbols, separation church, public schools, symbols public schools, wearing headscarves, french muslims, ban muslim, banning headscarves, patronizing attitude, muslim population, religious symbols public, children born france, french public life, symbols public,