Madam, - Fintan O'Toole should give some more thought to his thesis that diversity is endangering equality when some French children wear headscarves to school (Opinion, January 20th).
As a non-Muslim, Mr O'Toole tells readers that "by taking the teaching of a conservative élite as the essence of Islam, we practice a kind of tolerant bigotry, denying to Islam the complexity and contradiction we acknowledge in Christianity".
Who are the "we" here for which he speaks and how qualified are that "we" to make such decisions? Is it really for the French or the Irish state, in the exercise of its penal powers, to decide the applicability of passages in the Koran to what girls may wear at school? Schools should be seen to practice tolerance, if they are to preach it with credibility. On the face of it, the way one student dresses for school does not harm other students.
It is a matter of very fine judgment for the state to decide what individual practices of individual religions it will penalise, without interfering with essential religious freedom.
Of course, the state has a right and obligation to lay down minimum rules of public and private conduct which all religions within its jurisdiction must respect. But it should be cautious in so doing, and conscious of the risk of elevating "equality", a fairly subjective term in practice, into what could too easily become a totalitarian ideology.
The separation of Church and State cuts both ways - Yours, etc.,
JOHN BRUTON, TD, Dáil Éireann, Dublin 2.