The meek may one day inherit the earth, but not the headlines.
- Indira Gandhi
markshep.com
[just tripped over this]
Nothing i said indicated a reference to Canada from you, Neo, nor to practical effects like a woman in hijab covering her face for a driving license foto, no, that's true .... there was a little sniffiness however, and i noted that, on review now i see that it was CB who was far sniffier, so i take it back a little in your case ... [the constant demonisation of the french, and to large degree anybody else who didn't rah-rah Bush on invasion of Iraq, is no doubt generating reaction out here, you'll be aware of that of course]
'unthinkable as an official position here' - minds being such active critters, few things are unthinkable, or long remain unthinked .... the very same issue i mentioned, that of sikh police officers, has since been debated in Alta California, and probably elsewhere in the US, in all cases there has been vocal opposition .... probably fair to say, that very few years ago it was 'unthinkable' that a cop might appear in a turbine .... not very long back, it was 'unthinkable' that a catholic merited the full rights of man, and this at a time when a chinese or african could feel quite comfortable in Paris ..... a little perspective on this may be in order
As i understand it, the french attitude is toward freedom from religion, as much as freedom of religion, we've seen you type their word for this, 'laity/laicado' in french ..... as an agnostic, i disagree with them on this ban of personal symbols, and agree with you on it, because no matter what belief structure a person holds, he's got some form of small-r religion, and government's default position should always be to leave the individual in peace .... the young lady in the tricolour headscarf had the perfect message, maybe turbans and crucifixes and yarmulkes could quickly be made of this material -g- |
