.EVERY FEW years the French get worked up about a thing of religious clothing that they deem improper in the class. This time a controversy has broken out at la rentru00e9e, the begin of the brand-new school year, over an authorities choice to prohibit coming from condition institutions the abaya, an uncut robe worn through some Muslim women for modesty. To people in nations along with a tradition of liberal multiculturalism, the ban appears like an undesirable breach of the right to spiritual expression. To protectors of a stringent variation of French secularism, it is a procedure essential to protect the commonwealth coming from theological obstruction. Why is France therefore worried regarding Muslim wear its own colleges?