12/18/2003: 
Criminally Absurd
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
Unless you happen to be a Muslim
from John Leicester, The Associated Press
PARIS -- Despite protests from Muslim leaders, France must outlaw Islamic head coverings, Jewish skullcaps and other obvious religious signs in schools and regulate them in the workplace, President Jacques Chirac announced Wednesday.
Such action, the French president said in a televised national address, is needed to reaffirm France's secular foundations. "It is not negotiable," he asserted.
Islamic head scarves, Jewish yarmulkes or outsized Christian crosses "have no place" in public schools, Chirac said, and called on parliament, where his conservative government has a majority, to pass a law banning them ahead of the school year that starts in September 2004.
I thought the United States was the great intolerant monster country. This is a strange development.
