France banning niqab: big mistake

I think that we really do have to learn to distinguish hard and soft secularism. The former is probably a threat to civilisation, the latter is messy but probably the best we can do. Here's why hard secularism is self-defeating.

"The worst about all this fuss is that we are completely off target. Women donning the full veil are not against modernity but represent rather its sophisticated product, just like westernised Buddhists. The veil, surprising as this may seem, is good news for modern values. Some smart young women keep a niqab in their bag but only wear it in Paris's Rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, in order to draw attention to the fact that they belong to the best Muslim set, that they really have got that Muslim chic, something like the equivalent behaviour in a gay district. This deep western social movement is no threat to modern values, but rather vindicates the latter under unexpected aesthetic guise: it is so individualistic and depoliticised that it is more of a real threat for Islamism and terrorist networks themselves."

-Raphael Liogier.
For the record: I'd rather they didn't wear niqab etc, -sI do find it disconcerting to lose a whole set of social signals (one reason I don't like phoning strangers about delicate matters). But then the reasons given don't really add up unless hoodies are banned and any costumes of a carnivalesque nature are also banned from public places...
France's attack on the veil is a huge blunder | Raphael Liogier | Comment is free | The Guardian: