France Considers Adding Discrimination to Authoritarianism

This story just keeps getting worse. In New Delhi on Friday, French Foreign Minister Dominique De Villepin said that the French government would consider exempting Sikhs from the new law banning religious clothing and symbols:

After meeting a delegation led by chairman of the National Minorities Commission Tirlochan Singh, Villepin said: "We understand perfectly that we need to solve this problem taking into account the specificity of Sikh community, which is very well respected in France. There are traditions between France and the Sikh community. We know the price the Sikh community paid during the first world war and we are very keen for a solution."

The Sikhs are demanding that they be exempted from the ban, which seeks to outlaw symbols such as Muslim headscarves, Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses in the strictly secular public schools.

Yes, you see, the Sikh community is more specific than the Muslim community. Whatever that means. Wait, there's more:

Singh said turbans were an indispensable part of their religion.

"We have put forward our case that a turban for a Sikh is a religious symbol. It's not an exhibition and during 300 years of our history no Sikh can go anywhere without it, whether it's a business man or a school student. And France is a friend of India and this law should not be anti-Sikh," he said.

You see, turbans are very important to Sikhs. So therefore the entire rationale, such as it is, that has been advanced for why all religious clothing should be banned doesn't apply to them. And the fact that headscarves are important to Muslims and have a long tradition, and yarmulkes are important to Jews and have a long tradition, doesn't mean a thing. So not only is France going to pass an authoritarian law to deprive people of religious freedom with no good reason, they may even add discrimination to the list - thereby admitting, of course, that the reasons they offer for the ban are nonsense since they don't apply to all religions equally. The article finishes:

French secularism dictates that state schools must be free of religious influence. It sees Muslim veils, Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses as signs of aggressive proselytism.

But not Sikh turbans, apparently. They're more "specific" than those other religions.