Bye bye, Britain

[a completely inoffensive name]

“When was the negotiation on whether Muslims could dress according to their will? I am eager to read the transcript on that.” No problem:
1st, the hijab is not an Islamic clothing (this was confirm by the French Muslim Council) and it is not in the Koran.
2nd, you cannot wear what you want where you want, as you cannot be naked in the street, or wear a helmet when coming in a bank.
3rd: In France there is no “Communities”, so you don’t negotiate with specific groups but you vote in an elected Parliament the laws for all citizens.
Perhaps this concept is not familiar to you, it is called Democracy. It is not without flaws, but it works.
You did notice it was not muslin exodus after this law, so apparently, the Muslim “community” is happy with this law.

In term of ideology, you can agree that there is a second class citizen (women) in a religion and they have to wear specific clothing, and walk behind men, and not allowed to open their mouth. However, in France, in the constitution is not an opinion, it is an offence to be against equality in front of the law. And don’t give me the “they agree to wear a portable jail” thing. It is not because you had happy slaves that slavery is acceptable. Masochism is not a reason to accept torture (hey, they agree to be tortured…).

You can't say that the hijab is not a piece of Islamic clothing in order to deflect the religious component and then admit later on that Islamic customs dictate that women have to wear specific clothing. The hijab might not be uniquely Islamic per se, but obviously it's part of the dress code for it (for women), which bounds it up in religious expression.

My response to #2 is....why not? I would be mad if nude beaches were banned, because it's a form of expression as with anything else and the only reasons to deny nudity as expression is sexual puritanism.

#3 made me laugh, and it's a fair enough point. However, when you say that there has been no "muslim exodus" that is disingenuous. They left their home country to live in the West in the first place, I don't think they would be willing to give up the French standard of living despite their wives not covering their face. Complacency isn't the same as being happy with an outcome.

As to how women are typically treated, I agree. They are treated as second class citizens under Islamic society (typically). However, the fact is that the wives are not second class citizens under French law and it is up to them to decide to have such standards practiced at home. Here in the US, we don't make hate speech illegal because although it promotes a view of inequality, it is antithetical to liberty for government to pick "the right" opinion. You undermine the French Constitution's goal of equality when you single out and punish those who have a different opinion from the Constitution.