13th July 2010, 5:28 PM
DJ, how is banning it not going to help anyone? Very few people will be wearing them. I'd call that helping people, whether they wanted it or not. What, exactly, is ineffectual about it?
As for trampling on rights, France has a tradition dating back to the French Revolution of having strictly secular governments, beyond anything even our Founders would have imagined. I don't think things like banning religious symbols (headscarves, prominent crosses, yarmukles, etc.) in school or banning burquas are all that out of line with that.
What's different about America is that though the Constitution is a very un-religious document, America in general is more religious than France today... but still, Weltall is right -- there are things that go too far for us. If we had the same proportions of women in burquas here that France did, I would be surprised if there weren't some kind of measures taken against them, as the government indeed does try to do against polygamist Mormons, etc.
Of course, considering how ridiculously weak and ineffectual their actions against those Mormons (for instance) are perhaps we wouldn't do as good a job of legally banning them, but who knows. Perhaps we would, because Mormons are sort of Christian, while Muslims are already unpopular here... though of course, really, we need to crack down hard on those Mormon splinter groups. It's absolutely insane that we allow them to have their own towns, exploit the American government for money (only one woman is legally married to each man, all of the others collect "single mother" benefits...), and more...
As for trampling on rights, France has a tradition dating back to the French Revolution of having strictly secular governments, beyond anything even our Founders would have imagined. I don't think things like banning religious symbols (headscarves, prominent crosses, yarmukles, etc.) in school or banning burquas are all that out of line with that.
What's different about America is that though the Constitution is a very un-religious document, America in general is more religious than France today... but still, Weltall is right -- there are things that go too far for us. If we had the same proportions of women in burquas here that France did, I would be surprised if there weren't some kind of measures taken against them, as the government indeed does try to do against polygamist Mormons, etc.
Of course, considering how ridiculously weak and ineffectual their actions against those Mormons (for instance) are perhaps we wouldn't do as good a job of legally banning them, but who knows. Perhaps we would, because Mormons are sort of Christian, while Muslims are already unpopular here... though of course, really, we need to crack down hard on those Mormon splinter groups. It's absolutely insane that we allow them to have their own towns, exploit the American government for money (only one woman is legally married to each man, all of the others collect "single mother" benefits...), and more...
![[Image: logo_bos_79x76.jpg]](https://www.tendocity.net/logo_bos_79x76.jpg){kind=logo}