.EVERY FEW years the French acquire worked up about a thing of religious apparel that they view as unacceptable in the classroom. This time around a debate has actually broken out at la rentru00e9e, the begin of the new school year, over a government selection to prohibit from condition schools the abaya, an unabridged robe worn through some Muslim ladies for virtue. To people in countries with a heritage of liberal multiculturalism, the restriction looks like an improper infraction of the right to spiritual expression.
To guardians of a stringent model of French secularism, it is a solution necessary to guard the commonwealth coming from theological disturbance. Why is France so concerned concerning Muslim wear its institutions?