VEILED THREATS?

Islam, Headscarves, and Religious Freedom

in America and France

(2008)

For a variety of historical, cultural and political reasons, the Islamic veil has become an increasingly controversial matter in Europe. This is particularly the case in France, where in 2004 the country’s parliament passed a statute that prohibits students from wearing the Muslim veil (alongside other ‘ostentatious’ religious sign) in the classroom.

Veiled Threats?’compares the French and US attitudes towards religious symbolism and the Islamic veil. Against conventional wisdom, it argues that before the passage of the 2004 statute, the French and American legal systems adopted a similar approach that respected religious signs. This is hardly surprising, the book suggests, for the American conception of secularism is in many respects stricter than the French idea of laïcité.

The book also questions a number of assumptions that surrounded the so-called ‘affaire des foulards’ and the approval of the 2004 statute: that the French legal system is fiercely secular; that the US one is more positively inclined towards religion; and that France was confronted with a ‘veil emergency’ that made the passage of the new statute inevitable.

A work of comparative law and policy, Veiled Threats? touches on issues as diverse as religious freedom, French and US legal history, freedom of expression, human rights law, and secularism. The doctoral thesis upon which this book is based can be downloaded free of charge in PDF here (opens a new window).

Also on this subject, a piece of mine titled ‘Fear Factor: Europe Bans the Burqa’ was published in OpenDemocracy.

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