B staggered to the nearest keyboard and wrote:

As far as I'm concerned, this tension between private beliefs and
public duties is a healthy one. However, there has to be debate and
compromise. I don't understand why only France has this huge problem
with its Muslim students. Other European countries have dealt with
this problem much more flexibly.

Probably for the same reason that the Academie Française worries over
the incursion of terms such as "email" into the language; and the same
reason that French Canadians go around with rulers to make sure that
on bilingual signs the font on the French version is not smaller than
the font on the English version. (Yes, they really do this.) The
obsession of the French with preserving their language and culture
against outside influence is something many of us find difficult to
comprehend, but in the end it's their own business.


--
hambu n hambu hodo