After the Head-Scarf Ban

Raphael Cazenave is an unlikely supporter of the pending ban on Islamic veils and other religious symbols in public schools, which was passed by the lower house of the French Parliament on Feb. 10. A youth counselor and lifelong resident of Paris banlieues — the poor, often violent and ethnically diverse housing developments on the outskirts of France's big cities — Cazenave, 30, might be expected to defend the right of Muslim girls to wear head scarves at school. But he backs the ban, and even wants the government to go further. "This law is a Band-Aid stuck on a serious...