Source: Yahoo! News
On December 17, 2003 Yahoo! News posted an Associated Press story that reported, "Despite protests from Muslim leaders, France must outlaw Islamic head coverings, Jewish skullcaps and other obvious religious signs in schools and regulate them in the workplace, President Jacques Chirac announced Wednesday. Such action, the French president said in a televised national address, is needed to reaffirm France's secular foundations. 'It is not negotiable,' he asserted. Islamic head scarves, Jewish yarmulkes or outsized Christian crosses 'have no place' in public schools, Chirac said, and called on parliament, where his conservative government has a majority, to pass a law banning them ahead of the school year that starts in September 2004."