Jewish father supports Muslim daughters right to wear headscarves in France

[ShaunN]

Dear Friends,

HI! I thought that this was an interesting story. For the record, I think that France's policies on the issue of the headscarf/religious symbols is unfortunate and counterproductive.

Here's the article:

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3149588.stm

Sincerely,

Shaun

[Charles RB]

EDIT: For the record, that's a story from five years ago (though the underlying situation is still there).

For the record, I think that France's policies on the issue of the headscarf/religious symbols is unfortunate and counterproductive.


I agree.

Though I find it even more worrying that in Turkey, you have the army, the courts and the opposition party colluding against the democratically elected government in accusations that it's undermining secularism...

...because it passed a law allowing religious garb to be worn at Universities. To the extent there were attempts to ban that party (they had to settle for restricting funding at the next election).

[ShaunN]

Dear Charles

Thanks for pointing that out. I missed the date. When I read the story, though, it seemed very familiar.

The Turkish situation is worrying. I'll comment on that a bit more later.

Sincerely,

Shaun

[Charles RB]

The Turkish situation is worrying.

What's more worrying is people who think the ruling party really is undermining secularism and the Turkish constitution and this is dangerous (my dad's one of them).

Now there is a vague possibility that this could undermine secularism. There is an actual, public attempt by the other side to undermine the democratic process. If I was going to point to something more likely to be a danger, I'd go for the latter.

Hell, religious extremism certainly will be a problem in Turkey if the ruling party did get kicked out and banned - that's the rulers telling Muslims "fuck you, you can't be in government or vote", that's barring people from peaceful political process. When that happens, you get radicalisation and increased chance of violence. This is known and documented, why would you risk it?