Anne Cunningham’s One-Sided Wonder points out an article dealing with the fallout of France’s recent ban on religious symbols in public schools: French Sikhs Defend Their Turbans and Find Their Voice:
No one, it seems, thought about the Sikhs and their turbans.
As part of a struggle to separate religion from the state, France is poised to pass a law banning religious symbols like Muslim veils, Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses from public schools.
But a report by an official commission of experts and a speech by President Jacques Chirac last month recommending passage of a legal ban said nothing about the head coverings worn by Sikhs.
After all, France is home to only several thousand Sikhs, compared with about 600,000 Jews and 5 million Muslims. Historically, the Sikh population is quiet, law-abiding, apolitical and almost invisible — living, working and worshiping mainly in a few isolated pockets of suburban Paris. Now they have found their voice, demanding that they be exempted from the anticipated prohibition.
Now, I am not going to rake the French government over the coals for this one: there aren’t that many Sikhs in France and strictly speaking turbans are only part of their culture, not one of the Five Ks. Still, it’s a problem. Generally speaking, members of that particular religious/cultural group tend to be very firm about being allowed to exhibit the trappings of their faith, and the first reaction of the officials interviewed (variants of “We have Sikhs in France?”) probably didn’t help matters much. Then again, I suppose that this was mostly an excuse to post a Sikh link or two: it’s a pretty interesting religion and, besides, you can never be too informed about other faiths.
Probably.
Moe