French Parliament Votes To Ban The Burka

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Kantor said:

SciFiBoy said:

Kantor said:

Some people don't seem to be getting this:

France is a secular country. Completely secular. Religious Education cannot be taught in school or university. Pupils may not wear religious symbols of any kind, from any religion, to school. No Burqas, no crosses, no Kirpans, no Kippahs.

This is not intended to persecute Muslims. This is intended to preserve the non-religious atmosphere of France, and to prevent against discrimination more than anything else.

as I understand it, the Burka has nothing to do with their religion, its a cultural thing.

and teaching RE is fine, so long as its not biased.

It has everything to do with the Islamic religion. It is a symbol of Islam.

RE will always be biased, that's the thing. You're not going to have an atheist teaching RE, so the teacher will be of a certain religion (in Britain/France, most probably Christianity). Also, separation of church and state, and all that. Religion has no place in an institution of learning based on scientific proof.

Actually, the Burka and hijab existed way before Islam was created. A lot of the arabian tribes in the region had women wearing burka signifying that they're from the upper/wealthy classes and women who didn't wear burka/hijab were considered from the lower class or slaves. You can argue that the burka became part of islam because the cultural integration that happened at that time. What I'm trying to say is that islam didn't create the whole burka phenomenon. it existed way before it. ScifiBoy is right it is in a way a cultural thing.