By Omar Souleiman

PARIS - In saying as much, Attal confirms that France’s affair with secularism has always lacked the neutrality vis-à-vis religion that it claims. The “secularism” of France, much like the “freedom of speech” that has allowed French publications to print offending images of the Prophet Muhammad, seems to many Muslims to be another excuse to beat them down. If France wishes to move beyond petty bans on religious symbols, it must take two steps: First, and arguably most importantly, the French must work to rid its culture of the disease of supremacy over its former colonial subjects. It is this supremacy that inspired the niqab ban of 2010 and the recent abaya ban. It led to the passing of a 2004 bill prohibiting the wearing of religious symbols in public schools. This same supremacy inspired more than a century of a French colonization that demanded assimilation and disintegration. It is an Islamophobic supremacy that uniquely targets Muslims in France, most of whom are immigrants from former French colonies. The second step is to redefine its understanding of religious neutrality in the public sphere. How are religious symbols an affront to the freedoms of others? Why is the government obsessed with assimilation to historically French customs? Resolving these problems would nurture an environment that celebrates and embraces its current religious diversity rather than clinging to archaic colonial-era demands of its colonized subjects.

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