In today's Wall Street Journal, Peter Berkowitz argues that a ban on the full veil for Muslim women – which he says would be "unthinkable" in the United States – might make sense for France.
France is different. It is home to approximately six million Muslims. That's more than in any other European state and represents almost 10% of France's population. Significant numbers of these relatively new immigrants are poor, confined to low-income and violence-prone neighborhoods on the outskirts of Paris, inclined to anti-Semitism, sympathetic to political Islam, and alienated from French social and political life.
In addition, the doctrine of laïcité—which is inscribed in Article 1 of the French Constitution and proclaims France a secular republic—separates church and state differently than in America. For many French, laïcité, roughly translated as national secularism, has acquired a militant meaning, according to which government must confine religion to the private sphere.
Far be it from me to advise the French, or to pretend to know the first thing about the proper interpretation of the French Constitution. But it certainly seems to me that if your central doctrine of church-state separation entails a "militant" "secularism", in which religion is "confined" to the "private sphere", you can't be surprised when some religious groups – no matter how big or small – feel "alienated from French social and political life." Is is any wonder? Doesn't one follow naturally from the other?
Berkowitz proudly marvels that the history of American immigration is one of relative assimilation, compared to the French experience. But it's no shocker. Robust religious freedom for all – including those of minority faiths – is the path that leads to that success. It's not that we have so few Muslims, as he suggests; it's that being Muslim, and practicing that faith according to conscience, makes one no less American.
[Postscript: For more info and perspective on the French concept of Laicite, I recommend this BBC article from 2004, and this op-ed in last week's NYTimes from Stanford professor David Laitin, making the case that "French republican ideals of a religion-blind society have not yet been met."]
