Sarkozy demands discretion from Muslims

The French government hopes that a ban on women wearing full body veils will send a message to the round six million French citizens with Muslim backgrounds, the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes: "This will make it clear to them that France is not prepared to bow to the pressure of a militant Islam and relativise women's equality in the name of Islam. President Sarkozy is surprisingly picking up the thread of a secular tradition through which the French Republic has always reaffirmed its identity. The March 2004 ban on 'visible religious symbols' in classrooms, which sparked a vigorous dispute at the time, has proven its worth in retrospect. ... In the midst of the debate about national identity he has formulated what France expects from its Muslim citizens: more discretion, less provocation."

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