French Religious Symbol Ban
PARIS, Oct. 21 - To enforce its new law banning religious symbols from public schools, the Ministry of National Education has decided to get tough.
This week it held formal disciplinary hearings and began expelling students who violated the law. The goal was to get rid of those defined as hopeless cases before the 10-day All Saints school vacation that ends with a national holiday honoring all of Catholicism’s saints.
The French government sees no contradiction or irony here.
[NY Times] (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/22/international/europe/22france.html)
The more I read about this French ban, the more shocked I am at how brazen the idea of secularism is being twisted to enact an edict clearly aimed against a particular religious group. Seeing the separation of church and state used as justication for persecution is a frightening exercise in spin to suit the mass’s need for a scapegoat.