18 Dec 2003 French People, Like Iraqis, Don’t Deserve Civil Rights
Jacques Chirac really, really hates manifestations of morality. He’s now pushing for a law in France barring the wearing of headscarves by Muslims, yarmulkes by Jews and crosses by Christians in public schools.
Chirac believes France is a secular state and this secularism should be forced down the throats of the French populace.
Hey Jacques, why just bar clothing-related manifestations of religion? Why not all kinds? For example, if a student in a French public school respects his teachers and studies hard because his religion teaches him to respect authority, shouldn’t he be forced to act up instead? And the children who don’t bully other children because their religious instructors told them it’s wrong — why, bully away!
There’s nothing special about clothing, after all. If betraying signs of religiosity through clothing choices is wrong, then it’s truly wrong to manifest signs of religiosity in other ways as well. And thus, those French students who have been behaving themselves in school because their faith says they should should stop right now.
The U.S. State Department has protested this idiocy, saying it infringes on religious freedom. Good for the State Department.
I’d boycott French products over this, except we already boycotting everything from France for other reasons, so this particular boycott idea will have to get in line.
One thing I will say for Chirac. He’s consistent. He didn’t care about civil rights for Iraqis, and he doesn’t care about them for the French, either. Just like Old Scratch.