Kari posted:The burkini debate in France goes to the heart of the French Revolution's idea of separation of Church and State..
Nothing to do with that. The French would love it all of those Muslims from North and West Africa became Catholics.
The French aren't good at incorporating diversity. In the French Antilles up to the 1990s their text books still told them that they are Gauls. The attitude is that these islanders are French and true French are Gauls, so that the creole culture (a Franco African blend with Amerindian and East Indian influences) is irrelevant, and at best quaint, but not serious.
Its very interesting that no serious municipality in the USA or Canada will ban the burquini) and yet I doubt that there are any burquinis around.
One day the French will look at the Americans, Canadians, and to a lesser extent the British, in how they absorb immigrants. They insist that immigrants learn the language, acquire education, develop the hard and soft skills needed to be absorbed into the labor force and attain upward mobility. And aside from that be as tolerant of others as they want others to be of them.
The French demand that immigrants, or former colonial people behave like the Gauls. Even the Corsicans have problems dealing with the French.