http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...whether-women-can-wear-niqabs/article1208608/ -in my opinion, european leaders from holland to france have inadvertently radicalized their muslim populations by promoting these austere if u will gestures of secularism
This has been bothering me for a while now. I've never seen a more fundamental misunderstanding of what secularism means. As much as a secular government is meant to limit the influence that religion can have on public policy, it is also meant to promote tolerance and pluralism, by preventing any one ideology from imposings its will onto others. Religious beliefs fall under that tolerance. France (and other European countries) have gotten the first part down pat, but have completely ignored the second. I can understand banning the burqa/niqab. It comes off as a very oppressive symbol, and its propogation/justification doesn't jive at all with Western conceptions of human rights. But the way the French take offense at the very sight of an individual wearing a hijab/yahmulke/turban/etc. is ridiculous. They seem to think that the only way religion can exist in a secular state is if it's non-visible and completely discreet, which is incorrect in so many ways.
