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• French MPs back headscarf ban | French MPs have voted by a massive majority to ban the Islamic headscarf and all other overt religious symbols from state schools (BBC, video)
  
  
• France has a state religion: secularism | In contrast to pluralist societies that try to accept cultural differences among citizens, the French ideal envisions a uniform, secularized identity (The New York Times)
  
  
• France could learn from us | If schools are supposed to help integrate people of all faiths and educate them in the democratic principles of tolerance and understanding, why in the world force religious students to choose between their religion and public school? (Harvey Simmons, The Toronto Star)
  
  
• France's great paradox to pursue secularism with religious zeal | Years of church-state conflict can help explain why the veil has been banned from schools (Sophie Masson, The Sydney Morning Herald)
  
  
• A threat to no one | For all its admirable motives, the unsettling suspicion remains among many French Muslims that the new law is aimed squarely against them and their religion (Editorial, The Guardian, London)
  
  

Androgynous magi:

• Three wise men may have been neither wise nor men | The traditional infant Nativity play scene could be in for a drastic rewrite after the Church of England indulged in some academic gender-swapping over the three Magi at its General Synod in London this week (Reuters)
  
  
• A 'magi' makeover for Three Wise Men | Gaspar, Melchior and Balthasar may give way to Gail, Melanie and Barbara at least in the Church of England (The Washington Times)
  
  
• Church questions sex of 'Three Wise Men' (AFP)
  
  

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February (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48