Berkley Center

Multiculturalism, including religious diversity, has been a hot topic in Europe of late, particularly since Angela Merkel declared that it has failed in Germany. In neighboring France, where the French are notably protective of their culture and wary of foreigners and immigrants, there are growing concentrations of Arab, Maghrebian, and African émigrés. The burqa ban in France is the epitome of this change, though whether it could be called fear, intolerance, respect, human rights standards, or practicality, is all up for argument.

But is there an argument? Can this discussion exist?

CNN wanted me to believe that, as I looked at its front page from my apartment in Paris, there were riots occurring outside of my bedroom window. This was not true, though that's not to say that there weren't any riots at all about the burqa ban. Any anger about it was entirely overshadowed by the riots and protests against the pension reforms, accompanied by strikes and parades that would rival Macy's Thanksgiving Day. Is that to say that the French don't care? Has multiculturalism in France failed?

When it comes to religion in France, they have a policy similar in principal to the American idea of the separation of church and state called laïcité—secularism. I was able to crack the tacit agreement of avoidance of religion in discussion after a French friend and I were detained on a train back from visiting the European Parliament in Brussels because of a terrorist threat, giving us a lot of silence to fill. After excusing myself for the sin of rudeness I was about to commit, I asked Florian why there is no talk of religion in France.

His answer was that it is a private matter. Despite the fact that much of France is Catholic, public manifestation of religion, especially in politics, is considered to be outrageous. One of the main reasons that the French have such a bad taste in their mouth about former President George W. Bush, he explained, was that he felt the need to invoke the Christian God's name in many of his speeches, or reference it in his politics. I confessed my opinion that I don't think anyone could be elected to the office of the American president in the near future without ascribing publicly to some religious belief, because religious belief means so much to voters in certain areas of the country, regardless of the existence of separation of church and state (though I politically find this frustrating). Florian looked at me and shook his head.

Religion in France is not a non-issue, but it is not nearly as political nor as diverse as what I am accustomed to in the United States. However, this issue will become more and more important with the growth of the European Union. One of the public opinion reasons that the accession of Turkey has been so opposed in the so-far traditionally Christian European Union, is the confrontation of the European Union and a overwhelmingly Muslim (though politically secular) population.

The burqa ban is, in my opinion, a thinly masked step towards political rejection of multiculturalism and integration, though I am admittedly biased by the freedom of speech/religion/clothing choice that I have enjoyed as an American. I only encountered blatant resistance to the ban one time in France, by two girls who proclaimed openly that both modern culture and traditions could be respected. They circulated a YouTube video of themselves cat-walking all over Paris in high heels, short shorts, and niqabs (the face covering, which was what is specifically outlawed).

This polarized and sensitive relationship with Islam is unique, though. There is a certain area called Le Marais (commonly called the "Jewish Quarter") where shops display a prominent Jewish culture, including food and jewelry. Additionally, there are several marks around the city respecting Judaism, notably remembrance of the many Jews who were deported from France to German concentration camps during the Nazi occupation in World War II. I have to ask myself why the relationship between France and Judaism is so different than that of France and Islam, since neither are traditionally prominent as much as Catholicism. Is it the residual guilt and solemn silence that some of the French have expressed towards their actions against the Jews? Is it that Jewish traditions are simply not "as different" as Muslim ones, or as prominent as a burqa or a niqab? Is it that French Catholics see modernized Jews (Reform culture, not Orthodox) as having more similar social values vis-à-vis women's issues?

After my semester in France, there remains no clear answer. Though I didn't have much of a chance to interact with French people outside of Paris, I found much less multiculturalism in Paris than I find in the United States, where diversity is prized. Don't get me wrong; I've loved my semester in France. The City of Lights is enchanting and the people are fascinating, intelligent, and passionate about politics and profiter de la vie (a phrase approximately meaning "capitalizing on life," but in a way that my friends and I haven't found an adequate English translation for). However, the French, I find, are torn between their tradition of protecting their language, fashion, culture, and food and being forced to adapt to a globalized world, expedited by the opening of borders in the Schengen Zone and the communal policies of the European Union, laws and policies that, in accordance with laïcite, leave religion in legislation nowhere to be found.