Yep, good ol’ France, as expected, overwhelmingly backed the ban of religious symbols from the classroom, thus endorsing what is arguably one of the best candidates for prominence on dumblaws.com:
France’s National Assembly voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to banish religious emblems from state schools, a measure meant to keep tensions between Muslim and Jewish minorities out of public classrooms.
Deputies voted 494 to 36 to ban Muslim headscarves, Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses and to expel pupils who insisted on wearing them. It will not apply to private schools.
[ . . . ]
“What is at issue here is the clear affirmation that public school is a place for learning and not for militant activity or proselytism,” Assembly Speaker Jean-Louis Debre said.
Er, no, what is at issue here is whether the public school system will actually deal with racism and militant activity, or whether it will just sweep it under the carpet. All this law will do is force Muslim girls out of the public system and into private Madrassas, where they will lose the opportunity to have a secular education. All this will do is force the militant wing of Islam underground in France, and insult all the mainstream Muslims by telling them that their symbol of faith is really a symbol of “militant activity”.
France is attempting to solve a serious problem by pretending it doesn’t exist, and we all know how well that works.
Check the facts first with someone who lives in France.
I understand that another French law already regulates the percentage of private schools (enrollment) allowed to open vs a percentage of the population. This new law is not going to send one Jew boy or one Arab girl to any private school.
Josh — You’re right for the wrong reasons. Unlike French jews, who have a network of private educational institutions, French Muslims are very poot. I beleive there is only one private Muslim school in France.
A recent article in Le Monde showed what was really happening — a 13 year old girl who hasn’t been to school in months, becuse she is being forced to choose between faith and education. If the French government wanted to drive Muslim women out of schools, they are already succeeding. Le Taliban?
Agreed mostly, cept I don’t see how Muslim madrassas are any less indoctrinating/dangerous than Jewish madrassas…or secular ones for that matter.
Being a product of Jewish day schools myself, I can’t argue with you that all private religious schools are indoctrinating. Luckily, my school wasn’t all that religious, and neither were most of my classmates, so it was easier for me to become skeptical than it would’ve been had I gone to a much more religious, closed kind of school. It takes all kinds.
Doesn’t change the fact that Muslim girls should have just as much access to public schools as anyone else, hijab or no hijab.