It is an irony that French President, Jacques Chirac, should call for a ban on Muslim headscarves and other ostentatious religious symbols such as the Jewish kippa and a cross `that is of manifestly excessive dimensions' in State schools in the name of secularism. For religious freedom, including the right of a person to express his or her religious identity in a manner he or she deems appropriate is integral to the secular notion of human rights. Of course, in exercising this right a person should observe one other principle which is essential to the secular perspective on liberty : the use of the headscarf or any other religious symbol should not impinge upon the rights of the other.

The Committee established by the French government which recommended the ban on ostentatious religious insignia in schools failed to show how the wearing of the headscarf by a French schoolgirl for instance affected the rights of her schoolmates in any way. As a number of French Muslim schoolgirls stated in media interviews for them donning on the scarf is a way of demonstrating their commitment to values such as modesty and decorum which are highly cherished virtues in Islam. Though I do not regard the headscarf as the ultimate manifestation of female modesty - the Holy Quran has a more profound understanding of modesty - I would nonetheless defend the right of a Muslim woman to wear a scarf just as I would defend her right not to wear the scarf.

Such a position is not only consistent with the spirit of the Quran which emphasises substance over form but it is also in harmony with fundamental secular human rights. This is why President Chirac's proposed ban upon headscarves and other religious insignia in State schools is not so much a defence of secularism as it is a reflection of a deeply ingrained aversion towards any role for religion in the public sphere which has been a characteristic feature of a significant segment of French society for at least two centuries. Indeed, this antagonism towards religion in the garb of secularism is perhaps more pronounced in France than in any other European country.

It is an attitude which is not helpful at all in the integration of France's 5 million Muslims - about 8 percent of the total population - into French society. In fact, the headscarf ban will only further alienate the Muslim population. It will reinforce the feeling of resentment towards the French State which already exists within pockets of Muslim youths born and bred in the country.

Instead of banning headscarves, it is this larger question of the social, political and economic integration of the Muslim minority into mainstream French society that the government should be addressing. Apart from an appraisal of actual policies and programmes that impact upon the community, it calls for a thorough re-examination of certain dominant attitudes exhibited by both the majority and the minority which appear to have contributed to the widening chasm between the two. In other words, social education aimed at overcoming deep seated prejudices and stereotypes should be the priority focus of both State and society at this point in time. President Chirac has adopted the wrong approach to a challenge that confronts most multi- religious societies today.

19 December 2003