Is there an award for mindless optimism?
"Instead, it seems, the opposite has been happening, with the divide becoming ever greater."
What about an ignoring-the-predictable award?
"France's new law, banning the Islamic headscarf from state schools..."
I hate to tell you, but the headscarf is not the problem.
"the government has proposed a five-year plan to improve social cohesion"
What about a bandaid-on-a-cancer award?
Oh nevermind. The Darwin Award's going to cover it all.
The French happen to be on the right track on this one, I believe. We tend to take a benign view of a cultural symbol in the interest of free expression. But the hijab is a gang marker like grafitti on a wall. The more markers, the bolder the gang--"We own this place". Control the markers, and you come a surprising distance in controlling the gang.
We ought to forbid the hijab in schools. Let 'em stay home if they don't like it. Does a Muslim girl need to read?
Wait until your local elem school has a few girls in this outward symbol of Islam. It'll feel like the Ku Klux Klan is dressing their kids for your school...shudder...
It's not *the* problem as a whole, but it's a big part of it. First off, the head scarf is a *symbol* for adherence to radical jihadi Islam. When girls start wearing it in school, those girls who *don't* wear it get persecuted, bullied, beaten up, etc. The headscarf also symbolizes a way of treating women that is very backward. For instance, young girls of 13-15 are often sent to Morocco or Algeria to be married, with no choice of their own. Wearing the headscarf shows that the wearer, and more importantly her family, believe in this retrograde view of women.