Source: The First Amendment Center
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/commentary.aspx?id=12671
On February 15, 2004 The First Amendment Center published an editorial by Charles Haynes responding to the French ban on religious symbols in the public schools. "The head-scarf issue crystallizes the European-American divide (Belgium recently followed the French lead and moved to ban head scarves in schools; Germans are debating the issue). Most Europeans I encountered [in Europe] reject the American contention that people have a right to practice their faith free of government control. They applaud the French model of secular schools as religion-free zones. And some expressed skepticism about the successful integration of Muslims into an increasingly secular Western Europe... The United States may be a new experiment measured against centuries of European civilization. But this much we have learned: Peace among people of many faiths – and of no faith – is possible only when the state guards liberty of conscience for each and every person."