Times Tuesday: When Banning Religion Becomes As Bad As Imposing It
Or, What restrictions on religious dress mean for French freedom
From book bannings to abortion restrictions, we Americans are so accustomed to the influence of the Christian right on our politics and daily lives we are justified in thinking religious influence on public policy is dangerous.
For many, the French ideology of championing secular ideals and coming together in shared support of French culture and identity may seem appealing.
Except it is not.
France is merely substituting one form of ideological extremism for another.
This week, I am sharing Roger Cohen’s report on the reaction to France’s education minister Gabriel Attal’s ban of the abaya,
The government believes the role of education is to dissolve ethnic or religious identity in a shared commitment to the rights and responsibilities of French citizenship and so, as Mr. Attal put it, “you should not be able to distinguish or identify the students’ religion by looking at them.”
You can read the full story here.