France, by contrast, is largely pursuing its own burqa and niqab debate within the context of the country’s commitment to the secular society. When the country imposed a ban on religious symbols, including the Islamic headscarf, in state schools in 2004, it was not because they weren’t French enough, but because they were not secular. A burqa and niqab ban can, according to this reasoning, be imposed outside any nationalistic debate.

That said, in June last year President Nicolas Sarkozy was widely criticised for targeting full-veil wearers as part of his Ukip-style national identity debate. He wanted to attract supporters of the increasingly discredited Front National party to his own cause, declaring both burqas and niqabs to be “an affront to Republican values”. Like Ukip, Sarkozy argued that the garments had no basis in Islam, were a threat to gender equality, marginalised women, and endangered public safety because terrorists could use them to hide their identity, or every kind of criminal, from bank robbers to shop lifters, could use them to steal. As Sarkozy told a recent cabinet meeting: “Citizenship should be experienced with an uncovered face. There can be no other solution but a ban in all public places.”   »»» guardian.co.uk

The truth of the matter is that France, since the time of its Republican revolution, has been fiercely anti-clerical, first attacking Roman Catholics and Protestants and now Muslims. France is determined to impose a state religion (that it calls “laïcité”–secularism). With its national motto of Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood, which declares its “Republican values” and looks down from above the doors city halls all over France, one would think that secularism or neutrality in matters of religion would be limited to the government and its actions. Instead, France has decided that the freedom it claims to guarantee for its citizens does not include the freedom to publicly manifest religious faith by the clothing one wears.

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