22nd January 2004, 11:45 AM
Yeah, this isn't really liberalism, Weltall... I can see why they would do it and call it liberal but banning stuff like that makes me think more of being reactionary, or paranoid, or scared of other groups, than of liberalism... but you really do have to put it into context first.
France has a lot of African Muslim immigrants. Their numbers keep increasing. The French are nervous, and aren't exactly a people known for their tolerance. Though I will give them that the headscarf thing is a real problem. You may act like headscarves are innocuous but they are not. Just ask the Turks who have been having major problems over headscarves ever since Ataturk banned them in the '20s in an attempt to seperate religion from public life... they are a very religious symbol and stand in place of veils, so seeing them as a symbol of the subjugation of women under men is quite appropriate. Banning them I don't have a big problem with in the context of France where there are more bans of civil liberties than is possible in America (like how many European nations ban video games that are too violent unless they cut it back, something that couldn't happen today here without new legislation that would be very contraversial... or think Britain, when it switched to the Metric System, and how they banned Standard and made it illegal to sell anything in Standard or even to have a Standard scale in your store... that wouldn't happen here...)... they see the headscarves as a threat and act to stop them. They just brought this law way too far and this talk of extending it seems absurd. Beards? Come on... and as for other religious headgear I don't think that Sikh turbans or yarmukles are really in the same category as headscarves... bandannas? Interesting, given that there is talk of Muslim people using them has headscarf replacements, but you really can go too far. What are they going to do, ban anyone from ever wearing headgear in school? Seems a bit absurd to me, and a definite over-reaction...
France has a lot of African Muslim immigrants. Their numbers keep increasing. The French are nervous, and aren't exactly a people known for their tolerance. Though I will give them that the headscarf thing is a real problem. You may act like headscarves are innocuous but they are not. Just ask the Turks who have been having major problems over headscarves ever since Ataturk banned them in the '20s in an attempt to seperate religion from public life... they are a very religious symbol and stand in place of veils, so seeing them as a symbol of the subjugation of women under men is quite appropriate. Banning them I don't have a big problem with in the context of France where there are more bans of civil liberties than is possible in America (like how many European nations ban video games that are too violent unless they cut it back, something that couldn't happen today here without new legislation that would be very contraversial... or think Britain, when it switched to the Metric System, and how they banned Standard and made it illegal to sell anything in Standard or even to have a Standard scale in your store... that wouldn't happen here...)... they see the headscarves as a threat and act to stop them. They just brought this law way too far and this talk of extending it seems absurd. Beards? Come on... and as for other religious headgear I don't think that Sikh turbans or yarmukles are really in the same category as headscarves... bandannas? Interesting, given that there is talk of Muslim people using them has headscarf replacements, but you really can go too far. What are they going to do, ban anyone from ever wearing headgear in school? Seems a bit absurd to me, and a definite over-reaction...
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