.EVERY FEW years the French get worked up regarding a thing of spiritual clothes that they consider improper in the class. This time around a dispute has broken out at la rentru00e9e, the start of the new academic year, over a federal government choice to outlaw from state universities the abaya, an unabridged bathrobe worn by some Muslim gals for modesty. To individuals in countries with a practice of liberal multiculturalism, the ban looks like an unacceptable infraction of the right to theological expression.
To guardians of a stringent version of French secularism, it is a measure important to secure the republic coming from religious interference. Why is France so worried concerning Muslim wear its own schools?