Curb your Islam

Christopher Caldwell gives the proposed French law banning the veil worn by Muslim women a powerfully sympathetic treatment in the featured article of the new Weekly Standard: “Veiled threat.” Caldwell’s article is an outstanding piece of journalism that provides the background to the proposed law and suggests the stakes involved.
Caldwell asks whether Islam can be practiced in private; whether it can be reconciled with free government; whether it can allow others to live in peace in a secular country. He scorns the ignorance of American public officials who lack any understanding of the internal challenge France’s Muslims raise to the French state.
Caldwell concludes: “There are elements of la