French President Jacques Chirac passes a bill to outlaw religious symbols in schools. This move reportedly comes as an effort to facilitate integration and help ease discrimination against Jewish and Muslim students, among others.

Does this strike anyone else as misguided? Far be it for people to actually be expected to be tolerant. Is the solution to xenophobia really to simply remove anything that is foreign to the mainstream? What Chirac is doing here, is institutionalizing the intolerance.

The President says that the secularization of the state is one of his society’s greatest achievements. Granted. But I don’t think this has anything to do with the secularization of schools and state. It is being imposed to individuals.