my comment on all of this is that im still unsure, but am tending towards supporting the removal of all religious symbols.
2 things. One, people have made points about people having the right to free expression, and that they should be allowed to wear what they like, esp if its part of who they are. Well by that same arguement it would be wrong for us to stop someone who honestly believed in nazism wearing a nazi armband to school as they have a right to their own choice of dress.
However it would cause problems (tho different problems to the currently discussed situation) and we would stop them. If the government/people decide banning ALL religious symbols from schools is to the benefit of society then it is ok to do so, and isn't rascist or suppressing peoples freedom of expression.
Two, people will obviously take the main target of this to be islamic people. And it's unfortunate in the current climate that it just so happens to be, because the principal of banning all religious symbols from schools isn't racist at all. It's just a fact that if applied it will cause islamic people to feel hard done by, due to their forms of dress being intertwined with their religion/sexism. Its all down to whether you believe the actual agenda of the french government is to suppress obvious display of islamic belief, or whether they are simply doing whats right for their country from a religion/no religion point of view.
Also, thinking about the sexism thing, the wearing of the veils... i don't think that the veils being the traditional dress is sexist, even if it came from sexist origins. However any situation wear a woman has to wear one to avoid trouble/violence/social exclusion then it is.
I also think that a lot of the women who support the wearing of it have a slightly distorted point of view, much as a woman brought up in a family/society where the woman stays at home and cooks food may support that way of life for women because it's what she knows.
[hr]IMAGE:www.red-llama.com/avatars/eviltwinsaint.gif
http://www.the-leaving.com