France's new dress code: a ban on religious symbols in schools shows how differently France and the U.S. think about religion and pluralism.

• Author: Sciolino, Elaine
• Position: International

For weeks this winter, a French proposal to forbid most religious symbols in public schools, including the head scarves and veils worn by many Muslim girls, attracted heavy media attention and led to large street protests. In March, the French Parliament enacted the bah, and it will take effect before the new school year begins in September.

Although the impetus for the law was the increasing number of Muslim schoolgirls covering their heads, President Jacques Chirac and his ministers have said that crosses that are deemed too large and Jewish skullcaps will also be prohibited.

The debate has little to do with the usual reasons for school dress codes and much to do with France's efforts to come to grips with Islam. Muslim immigrants, many from North Africa, began arriving during the 1960s and 1970s and now number 5 million, about 8 percent of the population.

SECULARISM AS A CREED

In France, Muslim practices are often cast as a challenge to Christianity, but in many ways they challenge another religion entirely: the unofficial French creed of secularism, and the French state's historical impulse to impose its republican value system on its citizens.

The secularist creed dates to the French Revolution in 1789. The Revolution overthrew the monarchy and the aristocracy but also overturned the historic dominance of the Catholic Church, until then a pillar of French society.

In contrast to pluralist societies like the United States that try to accept or celebrate cultural differences, the French ideal envisions a uniform, secularized French identity as the best guarantor of national unity and the separation of church and state.

Now, a small but determined minority of France's Muslims has begun to challenge that ideal. They are calling for sex segregated gym classes for girls and prayer breaks during exams. Teachers have complained that hostility from Muslim students toward Israel has made it impossible to teach about the Holocaust. Some Muslim men won't allow their wives or daughters to be treated by male doctors.

Islam's visibility in France is striking. Because of a shortage of mosque space, thousands of Muslims pray on sidewalks and in the streets outside their places of worship. While people here have grudgingly accepted a growing Muslim presence in their midst, many still resent displays of religious and cultural symbols.

But the Muslim presence has also been felt in recent criminal behavior. A young Arab-Muslim underclass is blamed for...