Religious stuff

[owl]

The French want to pass a law banning religious symbols (headscarves, kippas, and 'large Christian crosses', whatever that means) from being worn in schools 'to protect the secular nature of the state'.

The world has gone mad.

My sister told me tonight that 'did you know the Pope has absolved the Jews for the death of Jesus?' Well, isn't that nice of him. I feel like apologising for the people that say they share my religion. OTOH, I could just disown them. What's the point in claiming to be a Christian if you forget the bits about love and mercy and compassion?

Comments

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

This business with banning hijabs in public schools along with yarmulkes and crosses that are too prominent is in part due to the French government's aggressive secularism but it's also rooted in good old fashioned French xenophobia. France now has Europe's highest Muslim population, immigrants from Northern Africa and the Middle East. As the French abandon their traditions and their birthrate falls, a new non-assimilating culture is right in their midst. One with a very high birthrate.

Ergo, they try and make the non-assimilating population assimilate. But the proverbial horse is already out of the barn. Some folks think it might be a good idea to try and take the extremism out of the population. But I think all it will do is make the Muslims angry and convince them the only way they can hold on to their way of doing things is to run the show.

[fernwithy.livejournal.com]

Alas, this sort of thing is why I think there's going to be another major, horrible war in Europe, and sooner rather than later. Not because the Muslim immigrant population is getting restless--it's always been restless--but because for decades, European high culture has been essentially asking Europeans to put up with it and go quietly into the night, and people are starting to get sick of it. The existence of a law like this suggests that we're getting very close to a breaking point. Something's going to happen, and some leader or other will rally the troops. If I were an Arab in France right now, I'd be looking for the next plane out. I think a law like this suggests that it's too late to try and smooth things over.