01 April 2015, The Tablet

Liberté, égalité, laïcité?


 
Campaigning politicians are increasingly stressing French official secularism following the Charlie Hebdo murders. But the attempt to drive religion out of the public square is being resisted by faith leaders including those of the Catholic Church IN toulouse, a polling agent tried to stop a rabbi from voting in a recent local election because he was wearing his kippa. In the same city, two men shouting “We don’t want that here” tried to pull the headscarf off a Muslim woman. The mayor of a town in Burgundy ordered state-school cafeterias to stop serving vegetarian lunches, the default option for Muslim and Jewish pupils when pork or other religiously unacceptable meat is on the menu.The rabbi got to vote after other polling officials intervened and the Muslim woman&rsq
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