SSe More All INFO http://www.punjabiturban.com/
years. Sikhs even have their own commemorative stamp, issued on the 300
th
birthday of
the year when Guru Gobind Singh created the Khalsa.
221
Sikhs immigrated to the United States as early as 1899, settling mainly in the
West “to build railroads, farm, or work in mills and foundries.”
222
Sikh agricultural skills SSe More All INFO http://www.punjabiturban.com/
combined with the similarities of the fertile land of California with that of Punjab made
the Western region of America a natural home for many Sikhs.
223
Although there has SSe More All INFO http://www.punjabiturban.com/
been a vibrant Sikh community in Central California since the late 19
th
century, most of
the Sikhs currently living around the country arrived after the 1965 immigration laws
nullified immigration quotas.
224
“After 1965 in the United States . . . . immigration laws
were revised to admit Indians in numbers equal to those for people of other countries.”
225
As a result of the change in laws, which favored professionals, Sikhs were among the
approximately “hundred thousand engineers, physicians, scientists, professors, teachers,
business people and their dependents [who] had entered the United States by 1975.”
226
There are approximately 500,000 Sikhs in the United States today, one third of
whom reside in California and New Mexico. Many of them wear turbans and keep long
beards as symbols of their faith.
227
Despite the discrimination that Sikhs have faced in
the United States, they have prospered in various aspects of American life, including
politics and business.
228
221
See SikhTimes.com (image of stamp) SSe More All INFO http://www.punjabiturban.com/
http://www.sikhtimes.com/300_years_of_khalsa_stamp_canada_1999.jpg.
222
See Civil Rights Concerns in the Metropolitan Washington, D.C., Area in the
Aftermath of the September 11, 2001, Tragedies, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights 8
(June 2003) [hereinafter Civil Rights Commission Report].
223
Lea Terhune, Sikhs Rule in California’s Central Valley, SPAN 2 (May/June 2005),
available at http://usembassy.state.gov/posts/in1/wwwfspmayjune4.pdf.
224
See L. Scott Smith, From Promised land to Tower of Babel: Religious Pluralism and
the Future of the Liberal Experiment in America, 45 BRANDEIS L.J. 527, 570 (2007); see
also Stromer, supra note 11, at 739-40, 742-43.
225
Jensen, supra note 90, at 280.
226
Id.
227
SMART, Who are the Sikhs, Sikh Media Watch and Resource Task Force, available
at http://www.sikhmediawatch.org/pubs/smartpub1.htm.
228
Civil Rights Commission Report, supra note 222 at 8 (quoting Patwant Singh, The
Sikhs 242 (1992)). See e.g., Stephanie M. Weinstein, A Needed Image Makeover:
Interest Convergence and the United States’ War on Terror, 11 ROGER WILLIAMS U. L.
REV. 403, 427 (2006) (“Religious minorities, such as Sikhs, are also experiencing
economic gains. Akal Security, owned by the Sikh Dharma community, is one of
America’s fastest growing security companies.”).
41B. The Global Call for Assimilation after 9/11
The war on terror has not only increased racial violence, harassment, and adverse
employment actions against Sikhs with turbans; it has also led to a more abstract
questioning of the proper degree to which visible immigrant minority groups should be
part of mainstream Western society.
229
Western societies have generally permitted
immigrant minority groups to maintain aspects of their identity and heritage.
230
Canada, SSe More All INFO http://www.punjabiturban.com/
for example, is famous for advancing this more permissive approach to multiculturalism.
Indeed, former Canadian Prime Minister Diefenbaker once said
Canada was not a “melting pot” in which the individuality of each element
is destroyed in order to produce a new and totally different element. It is
rather a garden into which have been transplanted the hardiest and
brightest of flowers from many lands, each retaining in its new
environment the best of the qualities for which it was loved and prized in
its native land.
231
In a multicultural society, certain pockets of a city may have a large concentration
of ethnic or religious immigrants.
232
The Little Italy’s or Chinatowns that are embedded
229 SSe More All INFO http://www.punjabiturban.com/
See Helen Elizabeth Hartnell, Belonging: Citizenship and Migration in the European
Union and in Germany, 24 BERKELEY J. INT’L L. 330, 339 (2006) (“Questions
surrounding tolerance, multiculturalism, and the existence of ‘parallel societies’ have
returned to the forefront of contemporary debates in Germany, particularly since the
eruption of ethnic violence in the neighboring Netherlands in the summer of 2004 and in
France in October 2005.”).
230 SSe More All INFO http://www.punjabiturban.com/
See, e.g., Kenneth Lasson, Religious Liberty in the Military: the First Amendment
under “Friendly Fire”, 9 J.L. & RELIGION 471, 471 (1992) (“most western cultures
regard religious liberty as so fundamental that their military establishments routinely
develop regulations to accommodate specific religious practices.”); Gidon Sapir, Religion
and State- A Fresh Theoretical Start, 75 NOTRE DAME L. REV. 579, 583 (Dec. 1999)
(“The vast majority of Western nations accept the view that people should be granted
freedom of religion.”).
231
See, e.g., Singh, supra note 113, at 208.
232
See Barry R. Chiswick & Paul W. Miller, Immigrant Residential and Mobility
Patterns, (in Reed Ueda, A COMPANION TO AMERICAN IMMIGRATION, 309 (2006)) (“A
common characteristic of immigrants in various destinations and in various time periods
is that they tend to be geographically concentrated. Immigrants of a particular origin tend
to live in areas where others from the same origin live, rather than disturbing themselves
across the regions of the destination in the same proportion as the native-born population.
The result of this tendency to settle among others from the country of origin is the
formation of immigrant and ethnic concentrations or enclaves.”); cf. Dessa Marie Dal
42in some countries’ major metropolitan areas—with restaurants and grocery stores
offering traditional food and dual language business signs—are examples of societies
exhibiting permissive multiculturalism.
233
While minorities and immigrants may live in
these concentrated areas, they nonetheless participate in society, by, for example, taking
part in political and civic activities or accepting jobs that some consider undesirable.
234
On the other end of the spectrum, perhaps, is France. The French Republic was
built on principles of separation of church and state and religious secularism, known in
French as laïcité.
235
Laïcité was at the base of the French Revolution, and has been a
basic tenet of French government since the 18
th
Century.
236
The separation of Church and
State was formally declared in 1905, and the idea holds an almost militant sway over the
French to this day.
237
Secularism implies not just neutrality, but is itself a government
mandated social norm,
238
leaving little space for identities that might clash with one’s
role as a politically French citizen. France has a long tradition of secularism. As one
commentator noted, “[t]he will of the state to avoid knowledge of citizens’ spirituality is
. . . a guarantee of liberty for the diverse religious confessions.”
239
As one writer
Porto, La Piccola Italia Invisible: Washington D.C.’s Invisible Little Italy, 11 GEO. PUB.
POL'Y REV. 15, 16 (2006) (arguing that “an ethnic community can exist without having an
ethnic enclave.”).
233
See KAREN CHRISTENSEN & DAVID LEVINSON, ENCYCLOPEDIA OF COMMUNITY: FROM
THE VILLAGE TO THE VIRTUAL WORLD, 864 (2003) (“Contemporary Italian American
neighborhoods are varied but share elements of appearance and traditions such as food
preferences that result in the Italian groceries, bakeries, and delicatessens.”).
234
See MIN ZHOU, CHINATOWN: THE SOCIOECONOMIC POTENTIAL OF AN URBAN
ENCLAVE (1992) (using New York's Chinatown as an example of an immigrant enclave
that is distinct, though still inextricably linked to broader American society).
235
See Christine Langenfeld, Germany: The Teacher Head Scarf Case, 3 INT’L J. CONST.
L. 86, 93 (Jan. 2005) (describing “the principle of laicism (principe de laïcité )” as a
“core principle of the French Republic, that guarantees the peaceful and equal
coexistence of different religions in French society” and which “demands a strict
separation between the secular state and religion[.]”).
236
See id. (noting that laïcité was “[m]entioned in France’s 1789 Declaration of Human
Rights[.]”).
237
See id. (“this principle was legally introduced in 1905 as the expression of a long
tradition of separation of church and state and is now enshrined in Article 1 of the French
Constitution.).
238
Henri Astier, The Deep Roots of French Secularism, BBC NEWS ONLINE, December
18, 2003 available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3325285.stm.
239 SSe More All INFO http://www.punjabiturban.com/
Jacques Robert, Religious Liberty and French Secularism, 2003 B. Y. U. L. REV. 637,
643 (2003).
43describes it, “[t]he Republic has always recognized individuals, rather than groups: [a]
French citizen owes allegiance to the nation, and has no officially sanctioned ethnic or
religious identity”
240 SSe More All INFO http://www.punjabiturban.com/
—placing France squarely in the “melting pot” category of
integrationists.
With terrorist activity occurring in the United States and throughout Europe,
immigrant communities are increasingly coming under attack—there is, as will be
described below, an increased call for Western societies to shift to the French side of the
assimilation/integration continuum.
241
More specifically, the pockets that are home to
immigrants are no longer charming corners of America or Europe; they are considered by
some to be isolated societies that serve as breeding grounds for “homegrown
terrorists.”
242
Integration, it is argued, prevents a non-Western identity from festering
and developing into extremism.
243
There are calls, therefore, for members of these self-segregating immigrant
communities to sufficiently blend into mainstream society—to adopt more of a Western
identity and to consequently shed some of their cultural ties to their homeland and native
beliefs.
244
There is a mounting emphasis on the outer, superficial characteristics of
citizens as being symbols of loyalty to a particular political regime, as though appearance
is almost a proxy for allegiance.
245
In short, there is growing discomfort not only with
concentrated areas of immigrants, but also with the clothing of immigrants.
246 SSe More All INFO http://www.punjabiturban.com/
240
Id.
241
See notes 248-83 and accompanying text, infra.
242
See, e.g., Robert Polner, A neighborhood in a fishbowl: Little Pakistan has lost plenty
of residents since 9/11, and many who stayed behind are struggling to adapt, Newsday,
Aug. 2, 2005 (discussing the impact of post-9/11 scrutiny on Brooklyn’s Little Pakistan).
243 SSe More All INFO http://www.punjabiturban.com/
See, Muslim Integration A Bar To Extremism, FORBES, Oct. 9, 2006, available at
http://www.forbes.com/home/business/2006/10/06/muslim-integration-stops-extremismbiz-cx_1009oxford.html.
244
See European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, Muslims in the
European Union: Discrimination and Islamophobia, (Dec. 18, 2006); see also, Brian
Murphy, EU report: Muslims face ‘Islamophobia’, ASSOC. PRESS, Dec. 18, 2006
(“Muslims feel that acceptance by society is increasingly premised on ‘assimilation’ and
the assumption that they should lose their Muslim identity[.]”).
245
See Mark Rice-Oxley, Taking on the veil: West looks to assimilation: From Britain to
Australia, unease grows over the separateness of many of the West’s Muslim
communities, CHRISTIAN SCI. MONITOR, Oct. 20, 2006 (noting that, in Australia,
“multiculturalism is seen in an increasingly negative light. Prime Minister John Howard,
[for example,] has spoken of moving away from ‘zealous multiculturalism’ toward a
reassertion of Australia’s national identity.”) (emphasis added).
246
See notes 248-83 and accompanying text, infra.
44Conspicuous articles of faith are manifestations of a “separate” people and are therefore
under additional scrutiny.
247
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the debate regarding assimilation is most pronounced in
France.
248
In February 2004, French lawmakers passed a law prohibiting public school
students from wearing articles of faith, such as signs or clothes, “that exhibit
conspicuously a religious affiliation.”
249
The French aimed the law against those
religious minorities who are most “visible” amongst them, i.e. those whose appearance
itself manifests an alternative “political” identity.
250
The purpose of the ban was
ostensibly to discourage the growth of Islamic fundamentalism and to promote
secularism.
251
Although passed explicitly to prevent the wearing of headscarves by
247
See Rice-Oxley, supra note 245.
248
See U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor,
International Religious Freedom Report 2005: France, Nov. 8, 2005 (“The [French]
Constitution provides for freedom of religion, and the Government generally respects this
right in practice; however, some religious groups remain concerned about legislation
passed in 2001 and 2004, which provided for the dissolution of groups under certain
circumstances and banned the wearing of conspicuous religious symbols by public school
employees and students.”), available at
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2005/51552.htm.
249
Law No. 2004-228 of Mar. 15, 2004, Journal Officiel de la République Française
[J.O.] [Official Gazette of France] 5190, Mar. 17, 2004.
250
Many of the French arguments for the law have been on the grounds that the presence
of headscarves and yarmulkes in schools politicizes the school atmosphere and leads to
political incidents between students. See Statement by M. Jean-Pierre Raffarin, Prime
Minister of France, Feb. 4, 2003, available at http://www.ambafranceus.org/news/statmnts/2004/raffarin_secularism_030204.asp (noting in a speech entitled,
“Bill on the application of the principle of secularity (laicite) in state schools,” that, “[i]t
has to be recognized that certain religious signs, among them the Islamic veil, are now
becoming more frequently seen in our schools. They are in fact taking on a political
meaning and can no longer be considered simply personal signs of religious affiliation.”);
see also Stasi Commission Report, http:// www. Assembleenationale.fr/12/dossiers/laicite.asp; The Sikh Coalition, Chirac Endorsement- English
Translation, Dec. 17, 2003, http://www.sikhcoalition.org/frenchban_chiracspeech.asp;
Caroline Wyatt, French Headscarf Ban Opens Rift, BBC, Feb. 11, 2004,
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3478895.st
m.
251
See William J. Kole, French Rue Religious Symbol Ban, ASSOC. PRESS, Feb. 15, 2004
(describing the ban as “France’s response to what many perceive as a rise in Muslim
fundamentalism[.]”); Christopher D. Belelieu, The Headscarf as a Symbolic Enemy of the
European Court of Human Rights’ Democratic Jurisprudence: Viewing Islam Through a
45young Muslim women, the ban also prohibits Jewish skullcaps, “large” Christian crosses,
and the Sikh turban in public schools.
252
French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, commenting on the law, noted,
“Today, all the great religions in the history of France have adapted themselves to [the
principle of secularism] . . . . For the most recently arrived. . . secularism is a chance, the
chance to be a religion of France.”
253
Secularism under this view implies not just
neutrality, but is itself the “state religion” of sorts.
254
The ban on conspicuous articles of faith in public school upset minority groups
whose religious identities were challenged.
255
They are now required to choose between
observing their faith and obtaining an education.
256
For example, Sikh boys with turbans
European Legal Prism in light of the Sahin Judgment, 12 COLUM. J. EUR. L. 573 (2006)
(commenting on the “simplication of the legal debate through a representation of the
headscarf as a symbol of Islamic fundamentalism.”); Stefanie Walterick, The Prohibition
of Muslim Headscarves from French Public School and Controversies Surrounding the
Hijab in the Western World, 20 TEMP. INT’L & COMP. L.J. 251, 254 (2006) (“While the
new law reflects France’s particular tradition of laïcité, the law can also be seen as a
backlash against France’s growing Muslim minority population.”).
252
See Walterick, supra note 251, n. 251 (“Although the new law contains neutral
language that prohibits all religious garb, including large Christian crosses, Jewish
yarmulkes, and Sikh turbans, the law was enacted with the specific intent to eliminate the
Muslim hijab, or headscarf, from French public school classrooms.”).
253
Debate Begins in France on Religion in the Schools, N.Y. TIMES, Feb. 4, 2004,
(French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, as quoted in Elaine Sciolino) available at
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE2DB153BF937A35751C0A9629
C8B63&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Subjects/C/Church-State%20Relations.
254
Henri Astier, The Deep Roots of French Secularism, BBC NEWS, Dec. 18, 2003,
available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3325285.stm.
255
For example, demonstrations were held in response to the ban. See, e.g., Delfin Vigil,
Worldwide Protests over Ban on Religious Symbols: French Proposal Would Apply to all
its Public Schools, Jan. 18, 2004.
256
In the words of one 17-year-old Sikh student, “I’m 100 percent French, I speak
French, I was born here.” He continued, “[b]ut it’s impossible for me to take off my
turban. If they force me, I’ll have to drop out, and never be able to do anything except a
job that no one else wants.” Elaine Sciolino, Bobigny Journal; French Sikhs Defend
Their Turbans and Find Their Voice, N.Y. TIMES, Jan. 12, 2004, available at
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E05EFDE1530F931A25752C0A9629C
8B63&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Subjects/S/Sikhs%20(Sect).
46are uniformly forbidden to enroll in public schools.
257 SSe More All INFO http://www.punjabiturban.com/
Accordingly, a number of students
from these minority communities have been forced to find alternative forms of basic
education, such as private or religious schooling, or home-schooling.
258
The accepted
form of integration, for these individuals who rejected the ostensible call to shed religious
attire, was one in which each culture adds to the identity of a nation by being able to
express its own diverse characteristics, including, but not limited to, turbans.
259
As
prominent Sikh scholar I. J. Singh points out, “the only desirable integration for a small
minority such as ours lies in a mosaic where our identity is sacrosanct.”
260
The Sikh perspective was completely overlooked in the lead up to the French
legislation.
261
When initially faced with Sikh objections after the bill’s passage, one
Ministry of Education official replied, “What? There are Sikhs in France? I know nothing
about the Sikh problem. Are there many Sikhs in France?”
262
This is despite the fact that
approximately 5,000 to 7,000 Sikhs live in France,
263
far more than the 1,200 veiled
Muslim schoolgirls in the country.
264
257
Although the ban officially affects only primary and secondary education (elementary
through high school), there have been reports that universities too are refusing to accept
Sikh men with turbans. Karamvir Singh, 19 year old French-Sikh and French citizen, was
rejected from 5 French universities in October in anticipation of the ban. He was told that
they were willing to accept him, if he took off his turban. Press Release, United Sikhs,
Right To Turban Petition, Jan. 3, 2004 available at http://www.sikhpride.com/france.htm.
258
See, e.g., Emma Jane Kirby, Sikh school sidesteps French ban, BBC NEWS, Sept. 15,
2007.
259
See Robin Cook, France need not fear schoolgirls in headscaves, THE INDEPENDENT
(U.K.), Dec. 19, 2003 (arguing that the British form of multiculturalism has “judged that
we are more likely to reduce friction and to promote harmony if we respect religious and
cultural diversity and tolerate rather than suppress its outward expressions. While France
has acted to ban headscarves, we adapted our law to permit Sikhs to wear their turbans
when others may be required to wear helmets. . . . Our lives are enriched by the
consequent diversity of cultures, heritage and, most popularly, cuisine.”).
260
I. J. SINGH, SIKHS AND SIKHISM: A VIEW WITH A BIAS 112 (The Centennial
Foundation 1998) (1993).
261
UK Sikhs join ‘headscarf’ protest, BBC NEWS, Feb. 21, 2004, available at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3508677.stm.
262
Sciolino, supra note 256.
263
French Sikhs lambast school ban, BBC NEWS, Sept. 7, 2004, available at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3635768.stm.
264
Elizabeth C. Jones, Muslim girls unveil their fears, BBC NEWS, Mar. 28, 2005,
available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/4352171.stm.
47 Despite protests from Sikhs, France’s highest administrative body, the Council of
State, upheld the ban as it applied to Sikhs.
265
According to reports of the ruling, the
Council of State concluded that the ban was “justified on the grounds of public security,”
an apparent allusion to the concern regarding the spread of religious fundamentalism,
“and was not a restriction on freedom of faith.”
266
The Council of State also ruled that a
Sikh can wear his turban in drivers’ license and passport photos, reasoning on procedural
grounds, rather than reasoning respecting the rights of Sikhs with turbans.
267
Specifically, the Council stated that the transport minister, not the local interior officials,
could establish regulations regarding such conditions or restrictions.
268
France’s actions have set an example for advancing a largely integrationist agenda
in Europe. Belgium imposed a similar ban in 2005, specifically disallowing Sikh turbans
in public educational institutions.
269
The Netherlands is contemplating “a total ban on
the wearing of burqas and other Muslim face veils in public, justifying the move on
security grounds.”
270
Moreover, Germany
has increased its integration efforts regarding immigrants but grapples
with sensitive issues such as headscarves. Amid heightened fears that
wearing a veil is a symbol of fundamentalist Islam, the headscarf issue on
another level also reflects sensitive topics such as the modern secular
identities of European states, the compatibility of Islam with largely
Christian Europe, the acceptance of immigrants, integration and religious
rights.
271
265
French Sikhs appeal on turban ban, BBC NEWS, Mar. 7, 2006, available at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4782420.stm.
266
Id.
267
See Rediff.com, France rules Sikh turbans legal, REDIFF.COM, Dec. 5, 2005, available
at http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/dec/05paris.htm.
268
Id.
269
The Tribune, Belgium bans turban in schools, THE TRIBUNE, Sept. 5, 2005, available
at http://wwww.tribuneindia.com/2005/20050905/punjab1.htm#10.
270
Alexandra Hudson, Dutch to ban wearing of Muslim burqa in public, REUTERS, Nov.
17, 2006 available at
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL1720620620061117.
271
German State Bans Hijab-clad Teachers, JUDEOSCOPE, June 1, 2006 (noting that the
hijab “has been the subject of growing debate in several parts of Europe for more than a
decade. But it especially intensified following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York
and Washington.”).
48 Accordingly, now half of Germany’s states prohibit Muslim schoolteachers from
wearing headscarves.
272
In addition, a school in Berlin has not allowed “370 pupils. . . to
speak in their native tongue” even though “[n]inety percent of the school’s students have
foreign-born parents . . . and each class features between eight and ten different
languages.”
273
The school’s headmaster explained, “We have introduced this ban to
enable our students to take part in German society through speaking and understanding
the language properly[.]”
274
The row over integration and articles of faith is perhaps most fervent in England,
where former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw claimed that Muslim attire that covers
women from head-to-toe, exposing only the eyes, hinders communication:
“Communication requires that both sides see each other’s face . . . . You not only hear
what people say, but you also see what they mean.”
275
Moreover, he stated that the
Muslim veil “separates people,” suggesting that its use contributes to the erosion of
British society.
276
He added:
Simply breathing the same air as other members of society isn’t
integration. Britishness is thus an identity available to Anglicans,
Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus and those of other religions and
none, and a central element of that identity is the principle that everyone
has the freedom to practice their faith not as a matter of tolerance but of
right.
277
To wear a headscarf, therefore, is to refuse to adopt British identity, a decision
Straw does not find acceptable. Following Foreign Secretary Straw’s foray into the
subject, Prime Minister Tony Blair affirmed Straw’s view that the veil is a “mark of
separation” that makes “people from outside the community feel uncomfortable.”
278
SSe More All INFO http://www.punjabiturban.com/
272
Id.
273
Stefan Nicola, German school bans foreign languages, UNITED PRESS INT’L., Jan. 26,
2006, available at http://www.upi.com/archive/view.php?archive=1&StoryID=20060126
-011259-7812r.
274
Id.
275
Fareena Alam, Beyond the Veil, NEWSWEEK, Nov. 27, 2006, available at
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15789437/site/newsweek/ (noting also that “British
Muslims immediately wondered how Straw’s former cabinet colleague, ex-Home
Secretary David Blunkett- blind since birth- ever did his job.”).
276
Muslims must feel British—Straw, BBC NEWS, Nov. 2, 2006, available at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6110798.stm.
277
Id.
278
Id.
49Moreover, on March 22, 2006, the House of Lords ruled that a Muslim girl’s “right to
manifest her belief in practice or observance” was not infringed when her high school
excluded her for wearing a jilbab, or a long shapeless black gown, instead of the school’s
uniform.
279
The lords reasoned, in part, that “there were three schools in the area at which
the wearing of the jilbab was permitted . . . . There is, however, no evidence to show that
there was any real difficulty in her attending one or other of these schools[.]”
280
To be sure, not all Western nations have responded to the terrorist activity and
subsequent concern for the spread of fundamentalist Islam by clamping down on the
wearing of articles of faith. For example, in 2005, the Australian government rejected a
proposal “to ban Muslim girls from wearing traditional headscarves in state schools.”
281
In discussing why he disliked the proposal, the Prime Minister stated, “If you ban a
headscarf you might, for consistency’s sake, have to ban a . . . turban,”
282
which the
Prime Minister apparently was not willing to do. Moreover, an official in opposition to
the proposal said, “We’re at war with terror, not young girls wearing scarves or (people
wearing) crucifixes or skull caps.”
283
Canada traditionally has been lenient towards minority groups. Former Prime
Minister Pierre Trudeau, for example, instituted a policy of multiculturalism that sought
to assist members of all cultural groups to overcome cultural barriers, promote encounters
between different groups, and support all of Canada’s cultures.
284
Canada’s commitment
to multiculturalism has been hotly debated and opposed since the nation’s inception.
Opponents to the policy feel that it leads to the erosion of a unified Canadian identity.
285
279
R v. Headteacher and Governors of Denbigh High School, (2006) UKHL 15,
available at
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200506/ldjudgmt/jd060322/begum-4.htm.
280
Id.
281
Brendan Nicholson, PM rejects headscarves ban, THE AGE, Aug. 30, 2005, available
at http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/pm-rejects-headscarvesban/2005/08/29/1125302511538.html.
282 SSe More All INFO http://www.punjabiturban.com/
Id.
283
Id.
284
See A. Wayne MacKay & M. Chantal Richard, Multiculturalism: Who Needs It?, 8
EDUC. & L.J. 265, 282 (1998).
285 SSe More All INFO http://www.punjabiturban.com/
Id. at 270 (pointing out that multiculturalism cannot be blamed for everything, since
these groups would be demanding certain rights whether or not an official governmental
policy on the issue had been articulated).
SSe More All INFO http://www.punjabiturban.com/
years. Sikhs even have their own commemorative stamp, issued on the 300
th
birthday of
the year when Guru Gobind Singh created the Khalsa.
221
Sikhs immigrated to the United States as early as 1899, settling mainly in the
West “to build railroads, farm, or work in mills and foundries.”
222
Sikh agricultural skills SSe More All INFO http://www.punjabiturban.com/
combined with the similarities of the fertile land of California with that of Punjab made
the Western region of America a natural home for many Sikhs.
223
Although there has SSe More All INFO http://www.punjabiturban.com/
been a vibrant Sikh community in Central California since the late 19
th
century, most of
the Sikhs currently living around the country arrived after the 1965 immigration laws
nullified immigration quotas.
224
“After 1965 in the United States . . . . immigration laws
were revised to admit Indians in numbers equal to those for people of other countries.”
225
As a result of the change in laws, which favored professionals, Sikhs were among the
approximately “hundred thousand engineers, physicians, scientists, professors, teachers,
business people and their dependents [who] had entered the United States by 1975.”
226
There are approximately 500,000 Sikhs in the United States today, one third of
whom reside in California and New Mexico. Many of them wear turbans and keep long
beards as symbols of their faith.
227
Despite the discrimination that Sikhs have faced in
the United States, they have prospered in various aspects of American life, including
politics and business.
228
221
See SikhTimes.com (image of stamp) SSe More All INFO http://www.punjabiturban.com/
http://www.sikhtimes.com/300_years_of_khalsa_stamp_canada_1999.jpg.
222
See Civil Rights Concerns in the Metropolitan Washington, D.C., Area in the
Aftermath of the September 11, 2001, Tragedies, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights 8
(June 2003) [hereinafter Civil Rights Commission Report].
223
Lea Terhune, Sikhs Rule in California’s Central Valley, SPAN 2 (May/June 2005),
available at http://usembassy.state.gov/posts/in1/wwwfspmayjune4.pdf.
224
See L. Scott Smith, From Promised land to Tower of Babel: Religious Pluralism and
the Future of the Liberal Experiment in America, 45 BRANDEIS L.J. 527, 570 (2007); see
also Stromer, supra note 11, at 739-40, 742-43.
225
Jensen, supra note 90, at 280.
226
Id.
227
SMART, Who are the Sikhs, Sikh Media Watch and Resource Task Force, available
at http://www.sikhmediawatch.org/pubs/smartpub1.htm.
228
Civil Rights Commission Report, supra note 222 at 8 (quoting Patwant Singh, The
Sikhs 242 (1992)). See e.g., Stephanie M. Weinstein, A Needed Image Makeover:
Interest Convergence and the United States’ War on Terror, 11 ROGER WILLIAMS U. L.
REV. 403, 427 (2006) (“Religious minorities, such as Sikhs, are also experiencing
economic gains. Akal Security, owned by the Sikh Dharma community, is one of
America’s fastest growing security companies.”).
41B. The Global Call for Assimilation after 9/11
The war on terror has not only increased racial violence, harassment, and adverse
employment actions against Sikhs with turbans; it has also led to a more abstract
questioning of the proper degree to which visible immigrant minority groups should be
part of mainstream Western society.
229
Western societies have generally permitted
immigrant minority groups to maintain aspects of their identity and heritage.
230
Canada, SSe More All INFO http://www.punjabiturban.com/
for example, is famous for advancing this more permissive approach to multiculturalism.
Indeed, former Canadian Prime Minister Diefenbaker once said
Canada was not a “melting pot” in which the individuality of each element
is destroyed in order to produce a new and totally different element. It is
rather a garden into which have been transplanted the hardiest and
brightest of flowers from many lands, each retaining in its new
environment the best of the qualities for which it was loved and prized in
its native land.
231
In a multicultural society, certain pockets of a city may have a large concentration
of ethnic or religious immigrants.
232
The Little Italy’s or Chinatowns that are embedded
229 SSe More All INFO http://www.punjabiturban.com/
See Helen Elizabeth Hartnell, Belonging: Citizenship and Migration in the European
Union and in Germany, 24 BERKELEY J. INT’L L. 330, 339 (2006) (“Questions
surrounding tolerance, multiculturalism, and the existence of ‘parallel societies’ have
returned to the forefront of contemporary debates in Germany, particularly since the
eruption of ethnic violence in the neighboring Netherlands in the summer of 2004 and in
France in October 2005.”).
230 SSe More All INFO http://www.punjabiturban.com/
See, e.g., Kenneth Lasson, Religious Liberty in the Military: the First Amendment
under “Friendly Fire”, 9 J.L. & RELIGION 471, 471 (1992) (“most western cultures
regard religious liberty as so fundamental that their military establishments routinely
develop regulations to accommodate specific religious practices.”); Gidon Sapir, Religion
and State- A Fresh Theoretical Start, 75 NOTRE DAME L. REV. 579, 583 (Dec. 1999)
(“The vast majority of Western nations accept the view that people should be granted
freedom of religion.”).
231
See, e.g., Singh, supra note 113, at 208.
232
See Barry R. Chiswick & Paul W. Miller, Immigrant Residential and Mobility
Patterns, (in Reed Ueda, A COMPANION TO AMERICAN IMMIGRATION, 309 (2006)) (“A
common characteristic of immigrants in various destinations and in various time periods
is that they tend to be geographically concentrated. Immigrants of a particular origin tend
to live in areas where others from the same origin live, rather than disturbing themselves
across the regions of the destination in the same proportion as the native-born population.
The result of this tendency to settle among others from the country of origin is the
formation of immigrant and ethnic concentrations or enclaves.”); cf. Dessa Marie Dal
42in some countries’ major metropolitan areas—with restaurants and grocery stores
offering traditional food and dual language business signs—are examples of societies
exhibiting permissive multiculturalism.
233
While minorities and immigrants may live in
these concentrated areas, they nonetheless participate in society, by, for example, taking
part in political and civic activities or accepting jobs that some consider undesirable.
234
On the other end of the spectrum, perhaps, is France. The French Republic was
built on principles of separation of church and state and religious secularism, known in
French as laïcité.
235
Laïcité was at the base of the French Revolution, and has been a
basic tenet of French government since the 18
th
Century.
236
The separation of Church and
State was formally declared in 1905, and the idea holds an almost militant sway over the
French to this day.
237
Secularism implies not just neutrality, but is itself a government
mandated social norm,
238
leaving little space for identities that might clash with one’s
role as a politically French citizen. France has a long tradition of secularism. As one
commentator noted, “[t]he will of the state to avoid knowledge of citizens’ spirituality is
. . . a guarantee of liberty for the diverse religious confessions.”
239
As one writer
Porto, La Piccola Italia Invisible: Washington D.C.’s Invisible Little Italy, 11 GEO. PUB.
POL'Y REV. 15, 16 (2006) (arguing that “an ethnic community can exist without having an
ethnic enclave.”).
233
See KAREN CHRISTENSEN & DAVID LEVINSON, ENCYCLOPEDIA OF COMMUNITY: FROM
THE VILLAGE TO THE VIRTUAL WORLD, 864 (2003) (“Contemporary Italian American
neighborhoods are varied but share elements of appearance and traditions such as food
preferences that result in the Italian groceries, bakeries, and delicatessens.”).
234
See MIN ZHOU, CHINATOWN: THE SOCIOECONOMIC POTENTIAL OF AN URBAN
ENCLAVE (1992) (using New York's Chinatown as an example of an immigrant enclave
that is distinct, though still inextricably linked to broader American society).
235
See Christine Langenfeld, Germany: The Teacher Head Scarf Case, 3 INT’L J. CONST.
L. 86, 93 (Jan. 2005) (describing “the principle of laicism (principe de laïcité )” as a
“core principle of the French Republic, that guarantees the peaceful and equal
coexistence of different religions in French society” and which “demands a strict
separation between the secular state and religion[.]”).
236
See id. (noting that laïcité was “[m]entioned in France’s 1789 Declaration of Human
Rights[.]”).
237
See id. (“this principle was legally introduced in 1905 as the expression of a long
tradition of separation of church and state and is now enshrined in Article 1 of the French
Constitution.).
238
Henri Astier, The Deep Roots of French Secularism, BBC NEWS ONLINE, December
18, 2003 available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3325285.stm.
239 SSe More All INFO http://www.punjabiturban.com/
Jacques Robert, Religious Liberty and French Secularism, 2003 B. Y. U. L. REV. 637,
643 (2003).
43describes it, “[t]he Republic has always recognized individuals, rather than groups: [a]
French citizen owes allegiance to the nation, and has no officially sanctioned ethnic or
religious identity”
240 SSe More All INFO http://www.punjabiturban.com/
—placing France squarely in the “melting pot” category of
integrationists.
With terrorist activity occurring in the United States and throughout Europe,
immigrant communities are increasingly coming under attack—there is, as will be
described below, an increased call for Western societies to shift to the French side of the
assimilation/integration continuum.
241
More specifically, the pockets that are home to
immigrants are no longer charming corners of America or Europe; they are considered by
some to be isolated societies that serve as breeding grounds for “homegrown
terrorists.”
242
Integration, it is argued, prevents a non-Western identity from festering
and developing into extremism.
243
There are calls, therefore, for members of these self-segregating immigrant
communities to sufficiently blend into mainstream society—to adopt more of a Western
identity and to consequently shed some of their cultural ties to their homeland and native
beliefs.
244
There is a mounting emphasis on the outer, superficial characteristics of
citizens as being symbols of loyalty to a particular political regime, as though appearance
is almost a proxy for allegiance.
245
In short, there is growing discomfort not only with
concentrated areas of immigrants, but also with the clothing of immigrants.
246 SSe More All INFO http://www.punjabiturban.com/
240
Id.
241
See notes 248-83 and accompanying text, infra.
242
See, e.g., Robert Polner, A neighborhood in a fishbowl: Little Pakistan has lost plenty
of residents since 9/11, and many who stayed behind are struggling to adapt, Newsday,
Aug. 2, 2005 (discussing the impact of post-9/11 scrutiny on Brooklyn’s Little Pakistan).
243 SSe More All INFO http://www.punjabiturban.com/
See, Muslim Integration A Bar To Extremism, FORBES, Oct. 9, 2006, available at
http://www.forbes.com/home/business/2006/10/06/muslim-integration-stops-extremismbiz-cx_1009oxford.html.
244
See European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, Muslims in the
European Union: Discrimination and Islamophobia, (Dec. 18, 2006); see also, Brian
Murphy, EU report: Muslims face ‘Islamophobia’, ASSOC. PRESS, Dec. 18, 2006
(“Muslims feel that acceptance by society is increasingly premised on ‘assimilation’ and
the assumption that they should lose their Muslim identity[.]”).
245
See Mark Rice-Oxley, Taking on the veil: West looks to assimilation: From Britain to
Australia, unease grows over the separateness of many of the West’s Muslim
communities, CHRISTIAN SCI. MONITOR, Oct. 20, 2006 (noting that, in Australia,
“multiculturalism is seen in an increasingly negative light. Prime Minister John Howard,
[for example,] has spoken of moving away from ‘zealous multiculturalism’ toward a
reassertion of Australia’s national identity.”) (emphasis added).
246
See notes 248-83 and accompanying text, infra.
44Conspicuous articles of faith are manifestations of a “separate” people and are therefore
under additional scrutiny.
247
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the debate regarding assimilation is most pronounced in
France.
248
In February 2004, French lawmakers passed a law prohibiting public school
students from wearing articles of faith, such as signs or clothes, “that exhibit
conspicuously a religious affiliation.”
249
The French aimed the law against those
religious minorities who are most “visible” amongst them, i.e. those whose appearance
itself manifests an alternative “political” identity.
250
The purpose of the ban was
ostensibly to discourage the growth of Islamic fundamentalism and to promote
secularism.
251
Although passed explicitly to prevent the wearing of headscarves by
247
See Rice-Oxley, supra note 245.
248
See U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor,
International Religious Freedom Report 2005: France, Nov. 8, 2005 (“The [French]
Constitution provides for freedom of religion, and the Government generally respects this
right in practice; however, some religious groups remain concerned about legislation
passed in 2001 and 2004, which provided for the dissolution of groups under certain
circumstances and banned the wearing of conspicuous religious symbols by public school
employees and students.”), available at
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2005/51552.htm.
249
Law No. 2004-228 of Mar. 15, 2004, Journal Officiel de la République Française
[J.O.] [Official Gazette of France] 5190, Mar. 17, 2004.
250
Many of the French arguments for the law have been on the grounds that the presence
of headscarves and yarmulkes in schools politicizes the school atmosphere and leads to
political incidents between students. See Statement by M. Jean-Pierre Raffarin, Prime
Minister of France, Feb. 4, 2003, available at http://www.ambafranceus.org/news/statmnts/2004/raffarin_secularism_030204.asp (noting in a speech entitled,
“Bill on the application of the principle of secularity (laicite) in state schools,” that, “[i]t
has to be recognized that certain religious signs, among them the Islamic veil, are now
becoming more frequently seen in our schools. They are in fact taking on a political
meaning and can no longer be considered simply personal signs of religious affiliation.”);
see also Stasi Commission Report, http:// www. Assembleenationale.fr/12/dossiers/laicite.asp; The Sikh Coalition, Chirac Endorsement- English
Translation, Dec. 17, 2003, http://www.sikhcoalition.org/frenchban_chiracspeech.asp;
Caroline Wyatt, French Headscarf Ban Opens Rift, BBC, Feb. 11, 2004,
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3478895.st
m.
251
See William J. Kole, French Rue Religious Symbol Ban, ASSOC. PRESS, Feb. 15, 2004
(describing the ban as “France’s response to what many perceive as a rise in Muslim
fundamentalism[.]”); Christopher D. Belelieu, The Headscarf as a Symbolic Enemy of the
European Court of Human Rights’ Democratic Jurisprudence: Viewing Islam Through a
45young Muslim women, the ban also prohibits Jewish skullcaps, “large” Christian crosses,
and the Sikh turban in public schools.
252
French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, commenting on the law, noted,
“Today, all the great religions in the history of France have adapted themselves to [the
principle of secularism] . . . . For the most recently arrived. . . secularism is a chance, the
chance to be a religion of France.”
253
Secularism under this view implies not just
neutrality, but is itself the “state religion” of sorts.
254
The ban on conspicuous articles of faith in public school upset minority groups
whose religious identities were challenged.
255
They are now required to choose between
observing their faith and obtaining an education.
256
For example, Sikh boys with turbans
European Legal Prism in light of the Sahin Judgment, 12 COLUM. J. EUR. L. 573 (2006)
(commenting on the “simplication of the legal debate through a representation of the
headscarf as a symbol of Islamic fundamentalism.”); Stefanie Walterick, The Prohibition
of Muslim Headscarves from French Public School and Controversies Surrounding the
Hijab in the Western World, 20 TEMP. INT’L & COMP. L.J. 251, 254 (2006) (“While the
new law reflects France’s particular tradition of laïcité, the law can also be seen as a
backlash against France’s growing Muslim minority population.”).
252
See Walterick, supra note 251, n. 251 (“Although the new law contains neutral
language that prohibits all religious garb, including large Christian crosses, Jewish
yarmulkes, and Sikh turbans, the law was enacted with the specific intent to eliminate the
Muslim hijab, or headscarf, from French public school classrooms.”).
253
Debate Begins in France on Religion in the Schools, N.Y. TIMES, Feb. 4, 2004,
(French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, as quoted in Elaine Sciolino) available at
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE2DB153BF937A35751C0A9629
C8B63&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Subjects/C/Church-State%20Relations.
254
Henri Astier, The Deep Roots of French Secularism, BBC NEWS, Dec. 18, 2003,
available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3325285.stm.
255
For example, demonstrations were held in response to the ban. See, e.g., Delfin Vigil,
Worldwide Protests over Ban on Religious Symbols: French Proposal Would Apply to all
its Public Schools, Jan. 18, 2004.
256
In the words of one 17-year-old Sikh student, “I’m 100 percent French, I speak
French, I was born here.” He continued, “[b]ut it’s impossible for me to take off my
turban. If they force me, I’ll have to drop out, and never be able to do anything except a
job that no one else wants.” Elaine Sciolino, Bobigny Journal; French Sikhs Defend
Their Turbans and Find Their Voice, N.Y. TIMES, Jan. 12, 2004, available at
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E05EFDE1530F931A25752C0A9629C
8B63&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Subjects/S/Sikhs%20(Sect).
46are uniformly forbidden to enroll in public schools.
257 SSe More All INFO http://www.punjabiturban.com/
Accordingly, a number of students
from these minority communities have been forced to find alternative forms of basic
education, such as private or religious schooling, or home-schooling.
258
The accepted
form of integration, for these individuals who rejected the ostensible call to shed religious
attire, was one in which each culture adds to the identity of a nation by being able to
express its own diverse characteristics, including, but not limited to, turbans.
259
As
prominent Sikh scholar I. J. Singh points out, “the only desirable integration for a small
minority such as ours lies in a mosaic where our identity is sacrosanct.”
260
The Sikh perspective was completely overlooked in the lead up to the French
legislation.
261
When initially faced with Sikh objections after the bill’s passage, one
Ministry of Education official replied, “What? There are Sikhs in France? I know nothing
about the Sikh problem. Are there many Sikhs in France?”
262
This is despite the fact that
approximately 5,000 to 7,000 Sikhs live in France,
263
far more than the 1,200 veiled
Muslim schoolgirls in the country.
264
257
Although the ban officially affects only primary and secondary education (elementary
through high school), there have been reports that universities too are refusing to accept
Sikh men with turbans. Karamvir Singh, 19 year old French-Sikh and French citizen, was
rejected from 5 French universities in October in anticipation of the ban. He was told that
they were willing to accept him, if he took off his turban. Press Release, United Sikhs,
Right To Turban Petition, Jan. 3, 2004 available at http://www.sikhpride.com/france.htm.
258
See, e.g., Emma Jane Kirby, Sikh school sidesteps French ban, BBC NEWS, Sept. 15,
2007.
259
See Robin Cook, France need not fear schoolgirls in headscaves, THE INDEPENDENT
(U.K.), Dec. 19, 2003 (arguing that the British form of multiculturalism has “judged that
we are more likely to reduce friction and to promote harmony if we respect religious and
cultural diversity and tolerate rather than suppress its outward expressions. While France
has acted to ban headscarves, we adapted our law to permit Sikhs to wear their turbans
when others may be required to wear helmets. . . . Our lives are enriched by the
consequent diversity of cultures, heritage and, most popularly, cuisine.”).
260
I. J. SINGH, SIKHS AND SIKHISM: A VIEW WITH A BIAS 112 (The Centennial
Foundation 1998) (1993).
261
UK Sikhs join ‘headscarf’ protest, BBC NEWS, Feb. 21, 2004, available at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3508677.stm.
262
Sciolino, supra note 256.
263
French Sikhs lambast school ban, BBC NEWS, Sept. 7, 2004, available at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3635768.stm.
264
Elizabeth C. Jones, Muslim girls unveil their fears, BBC NEWS, Mar. 28, 2005,
available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/4352171.stm.
47 Despite protests from Sikhs, France’s highest administrative body, the Council of
State, upheld the ban as it applied to Sikhs.
265
According to reports of the ruling, the
Council of State concluded that the ban was “justified on the grounds of public security,”
an apparent allusion to the concern regarding the spread of religious fundamentalism,
“and was not a restriction on freedom of faith.”
266
The Council of State also ruled that a
Sikh can wear his turban in drivers’ license and passport photos, reasoning on procedural
grounds, rather than reasoning respecting the rights of Sikhs with turbans.
267
Specifically, the Council stated that the transport minister, not the local interior officials,
could establish regulations regarding such conditions or restrictions.
268
France’s actions have set an example for advancing a largely integrationist agenda
in Europe. Belgium imposed a similar ban in 2005, specifically disallowing Sikh turbans
in public educational institutions.
269
The Netherlands is contemplating “a total ban on
the wearing of burqas and other Muslim face veils in public, justifying the move on
security grounds.”
270
Moreover, Germany
has increased its integration efforts regarding immigrants but grapples
with sensitive issues such as headscarves. Amid heightened fears that
wearing a veil is a symbol of fundamentalist Islam, the headscarf issue on
another level also reflects sensitive topics such as the modern secular
identities of European states, the compatibility of Islam with largely
Christian Europe, the acceptance of immigrants, integration and religious
rights.
271
265
French Sikhs appeal on turban ban, BBC NEWS, Mar. 7, 2006, available at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4782420.stm.
266
Id.
267
See Rediff.com, France rules Sikh turbans legal, REDIFF.COM, Dec. 5, 2005, available
at http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/dec/05paris.htm.
268
Id.
269
The Tribune, Belgium bans turban in schools, THE TRIBUNE, Sept. 5, 2005, available
at http://wwww.tribuneindia.com/2005/20050905/punjab1.htm#10.
270
Alexandra Hudson, Dutch to ban wearing of Muslim burqa in public, REUTERS, Nov.
17, 2006 available at
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL1720620620061117.
271
German State Bans Hijab-clad Teachers, JUDEOSCOPE, June 1, 2006 (noting that the
hijab “has been the subject of growing debate in several parts of Europe for more than a
decade. But it especially intensified following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York
and Washington.”).
48 Accordingly, now half of Germany’s states prohibit Muslim schoolteachers from
wearing headscarves.
272
In addition, a school in Berlin has not allowed “370 pupils. . . to
speak in their native tongue” even though “[n]inety percent of the school’s students have
foreign-born parents . . . and each class features between eight and ten different
languages.”
273
The school’s headmaster explained, “We have introduced this ban to
enable our students to take part in German society through speaking and understanding
the language properly[.]”
274
The row over integration and articles of faith is perhaps most fervent in England,
where former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw claimed that Muslim attire that covers
women from head-to-toe, exposing only the eyes, hinders communication:
“Communication requires that both sides see each other’s face . . . . You not only hear
what people say, but you also see what they mean.”
275
Moreover, he stated that the
Muslim veil “separates people,” suggesting that its use contributes to the erosion of
British society.
276
He added:
Simply breathing the same air as other members of society isn’t
integration. Britishness is thus an identity available to Anglicans,
Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus and those of other religions and
none, and a central element of that identity is the principle that everyone
has the freedom to practice their faith not as a matter of tolerance but of
right.
277
To wear a headscarf, therefore, is to refuse to adopt British identity, a decision
Straw does not find acceptable. Following Foreign Secretary Straw’s foray into the
subject, Prime Minister Tony Blair affirmed Straw’s view that the veil is a “mark of
separation” that makes “people from outside the community feel uncomfortable.”
278
SSe More All INFO http://www.punjabiturban.com/
272
Id.
273
Stefan Nicola, German school bans foreign languages, UNITED PRESS INT’L., Jan. 26,
2006, available at http://www.upi.com/archive/view.php?archive=1&StoryID=20060126
-011259-7812r.
274
Id.
275
Fareena Alam, Beyond the Veil, NEWSWEEK, Nov. 27, 2006, available at
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15789437/site/newsweek/ (noting also that “British
Muslims immediately wondered how Straw’s former cabinet colleague, ex-Home
Secretary David Blunkett- blind since birth- ever did his job.”).
276
Muslims must feel British—Straw, BBC NEWS, Nov. 2, 2006, available at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6110798.stm.
277
Id.
278
Id.
49Moreover, on March 22, 2006, the House of Lords ruled that a Muslim girl’s “right to
manifest her belief in practice or observance” was not infringed when her high school
excluded her for wearing a jilbab, or a long shapeless black gown, instead of the school’s
uniform.
279
The lords reasoned, in part, that “there were three schools in the area at which
the wearing of the jilbab was permitted . . . . There is, however, no evidence to show that
there was any real difficulty in her attending one or other of these schools[.]”
280
To be sure, not all Western nations have responded to the terrorist activity and
subsequent concern for the spread of fundamentalist Islam by clamping down on the
wearing of articles of faith. For example, in 2005, the Australian government rejected a
proposal “to ban Muslim girls from wearing traditional headscarves in state schools.”
281
In discussing why he disliked the proposal, the Prime Minister stated, “If you ban a
headscarf you might, for consistency’s sake, have to ban a . . . turban,”
282
which the
Prime Minister apparently was not willing to do. Moreover, an official in opposition to
the proposal said, “We’re at war with terror, not young girls wearing scarves or (people
wearing) crucifixes or skull caps.”
283
Canada traditionally has been lenient towards minority groups. Former Prime
Minister Pierre Trudeau, for example, instituted a policy of multiculturalism that sought
to assist members of all cultural groups to overcome cultural barriers, promote encounters
between different groups, and support all of Canada’s cultures.
284
Canada’s commitment
to multiculturalism has been hotly debated and opposed since the nation’s inception.
Opponents to the policy feel that it leads to the erosion of a unified Canadian identity.
285
279
R v. Headteacher and Governors of Denbigh High School, (2006) UKHL 15,
available at
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200506/ldjudgmt/jd060322/begum-4.htm.
280
Id.
281
Brendan Nicholson, PM rejects headscarves ban, THE AGE, Aug. 30, 2005, available
at http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/pm-rejects-headscarvesban/2005/08/29/1125302511538.html.
282 SSe More All INFO http://www.punjabiturban.com/
Id.
283
Id.
284
See A. Wayne MacKay & M. Chantal Richard, Multiculturalism: Who Needs It?, 8
EDUC. & L.J. 265, 282 (1998).
285 SSe More All INFO http://www.punjabiturban.com/
Id. at 270 (pointing out that multiculturalism cannot be blamed for everything, since
these groups would be demanding certain rights whether or not an official governmental
policy on the issue had been articulated).
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