Secularism, State Policies, and Muslims in Europe<BR> Analyzing French Exceptionalism

Abstract

Islam has increasingly become an internal affair in several western European countries, where the population has grown to ten to fifteen million. In recent years, the European public has intensely discussed Muslims and Islam on several occasions, from terrorist attacks in London and Madrid to the debates on Danish cartoons. In short, there is today a Muslim question in the minds of many European politicians when it comes to the issues of immigration, integration, and security. European states have pursued diverse policies to regulate their populations. The most controversial of these policies is France's recent ban on wearing headscarves in public schools, which has been discussed in France and abroad since 1989. Other European countries, however, have taken students' headscarves as a part of their individual freedom and have not prohibited them. A survey of twelve major French and British newspapers between 1989 and 1999 shows how controversial the issue was in France, in comparison to Britain. According to the survey, the number of articles on the headscarf issue in French newspapers reached 1,174, whereas the British newspapers carried only eighteen.) As a result of this debate, a bill was passed in the French assembly and the senate and signed into the law by President Jacques Chirac in March 2004. The first article of the new law