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Wednesday, February 11, 2004
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WELCOME TO FRANCE
Western democracy is supposed to stand for some basic principles. These generally include, but are not limited to, freedom of speech, of religion, the free exchange of ideas and the right of parents to raise their children as they see fit. The west has resorted to arms several times in the last century to defend these principles. Trillions of dollars have been spent and millions of lives have been lost in the name of these ideas. They are freedoms we cherish and millions the world over envy.
Unless you happen to live in France.
The French parliment yesterday launched the most extensive assault on freedom since it's liberation in June of 1944. The French government has supressed the personal freedom of it's citizenry in ways the German occupiers didn't have the fortitude to attempt. And in a bizzarre rationalisation of it's action, the government claims to have done so in the name of "diversity."
The parliment, in an overwhelming vote, yesterday acted to ban "ostensibly religious" symbols and articles of clothing from it's public schools. These include Muslim head scarves, Jewish skull caps and Christian crosses. It has also abolished the rights of parents to keep their children out of classes that teach ideas contrary to their religious beliefs. The government has undertaken this is an effort to curb a rising tide of anti-Semitism and racism toward Muslims. However, these actions themselves are acts of racism and anti-Semistism and a direct assault on the precepts of democracy and religious pluraluism.
The government of France has also given a very important tool to the very fundamentalist forces that the war on terror is supposed to eliminate. Radical Muslims the world over can no point to France as a model of what the west has in mind for Muslim minorities. This vote will inevitiably be cited as justification for further terrorist action. The irony is that they will also overlook that France is doing precisely what they would, were they in a political position to do so. In the name of religious liberty, the government of France has become a secularist Taliban.
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