^ i'm not a sociology student but i was a politics/philosophy/history student so i totally see where you're coming from, and i agree - also, in this kind of matter it's often irrelevant what the public think - i'm sure there are many americans who are totally open minded and don't give a monkeys what people do with their own lives, but when the most vocal of the closed minded group are also the ones wielding most of the power (like both george bushes) then there's a real problem. the way america seemed to have a seismic shift towards religion based politics during bush jnr's terms was quite frightening as viewed from across the pond anyway. i don't know whether it was as noticeable to americans, sometimes it's hard to see these things so clearly if you're in the midst of them (and that's not a criticism at all, btw, just an observation), but to us it seemed like a major change.
unfortunately the change is spreading and is unlikely to go away: with the rise of islamism (and possibly atheism too actually), other religions, and specifically christianity, especially because it's so similar and closely linked to islam, feel more threatened than ever before and therefore try to assert themselves. it's definitely true in the us, i think, where it's often hard to tell the difference between the hard line christian factions and the hard line islamists. fundamentalism isn't religion specific!
it's becoming more and more true over here in britain too. it's partly because of the ridiculous blair agenda to promote semi-private schools, almost all of which are funded by religious groups, and which are set up as places where parents can avoid their poor darlings being subjected to the horrors of proper sex education, non-christians or *gasp* gay people, but it's a lot to do with the huge change in profile of islam in this country. i really have nothing against islam in this country - as long as they're not violent or rabid conversionists, i don't care what they do, but the truth is when you get more than one religion claiming to be the only true religion, it causes big problems.
here in the uk i think we're broadly secular but we're not officially secular and that really bothers me. our head of state is still called "defender of the faith" - well, in this day and age that seems a tad redundant. mind you, so does the monarchy.
i think in this matter, on the whole, france have the right idea. they have laicite, which is a very clear cut split between church and state. there are problems with it but it's a great idea, but that goes for just about any political concept ever (see also marxism, lovely ideas, shame about the execution). they have banned the wearing of hijabs, niqabs and burqas in schools and i think they recently banned burqas and niqabs altogether. half of me thinks this is terrible as i'm all for civil liberties and freedom of expression. however... they've banned all religious symbols from schools, stating that schools are a federal institution and therefore should have no religion in them at all, which i pretty much agree with.
it does go against my usual stance of letting people do what they want as long as it's not harming anyone else, but frankly, if i had a big magic wand, i'd make religion disappear for good, and i do think there's an element of religion/religious symbols (and especially those like the niqab and burqa) causing harm. but i don't have a magic wand and i'm generally fairly tolerant of other people's views so i'll make do with living and letting live!
