Quote:
Originally Posted by bryantm3
this all boils down to the terrible racism against muslims and others of middle eastern descent in france. like it or not, the french are doing to muslims what the south did to blacks in the 50s.
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While I wouldn't personally compare it with "racism" against blacks, I do understand what you're saying and agree with you in this respect: that the motivation behind a lot of the public opposition isn't quite as rational as it's made out to be.
I know in this country (the UK) when I hear this topic being discussed, it doesn't take long to realise that women's rights and secularism aren't the overriding concerns of the anti-veilers (unless the far right parties and the great conservative British public have suddenly decided that it's time to ditch religion and fight the feminist cause
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No question about it, a lot of public opposition seems to boil down to little more than "these foreign looking people with their foreign ways, coming into our country... " etc etc). Really, I get the impression that narrow-mindedness and bigotry have a large but silent part in this 'debate'.
But while legitimate reasons are being bandied around, it's still worth examining whether there really is a real case to be made for a ban. As I say, I'm not convinced.