Faith And Fury

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A Muslim activist in Italy goes to court to force the local public school to take down the crucifix from his son's classroom wall; when a judge rules in his favor, a wave of outrage sweeps the country. At a public high school outside Paris, two sisters are expelled for refusing to remove the head scarves they wear in observance of their Islamic faith — yet a dozen or so of their classmates wear head scarves and have not been expelled. And in Germany, a teacher sues for the right to keep her head veiled in the classroom, and after a five-year battle she wins — except the court also rules that states are free to establish head-scarf bans of their own.

Confused? You're not alone. In these three cases — all making news in the past few weeks — religious freedom and cultural identity clash with secular ideals. In all three, the decision-makers said they were upholding their countries' laws on the separation of church or mosque and state. But taken together, the cases raise uncomfortable questions about tolerance. Why, for instance, should a religious symbol like a crucifix be acceptable in a public school — as Italians overwhelmingly say it should be — while a head scarf worn by a young girl is not? Why should one kind of head scarf be permitted, and another outlawed? For non-Muslims, the rulings challenge long-held views about the relationship between Europe's Christian traditions and official state secularity. For Muslims, they are stark evidence of the difficulties they can face when trying to observe their faith. And for all of Europe, they are a reminder of how far society still has to go before it becomes as comfortable — and fair — as it is multicultural.

As director of Marseilles's Saint Mauront Catholic school, Jean Chamoux has seen a wave of Muslim students enroll as families look for more tolerant alternatives to French public schools. "Two decades ago," he says, "Muslim leaders requested the same kinds of considerations other religions enjoy: designated sections in cemeteries, construction permits for places of worship, some leeway in the observance of Ramadan or the wearing of head scarves. Those were denied. Today, the children of those leaders are demanding — not requesting — their right to freedom of religion as citizens of Europe."

To many Muslims, last week's episode in Italy suggests that some religions are more free than others. The case was brought against the public school in the small medieval town of Ofena in central Italy by Adel Smith, the 43-year-old leader of the Italian Union of Muslims, who converted from Catholicism to Islam in 1987. Smith, who's written two polemical books against Christianity, argued that the crucifix in his son's classroom violated his right to public education free of religious influence — and in a 30-page decision the local magistrate agreed, ordering that the cross be removed.