Woke American Ideas are a Threat, French leaders say

[EastAnglianLefty]

Also worth noting that conversion to Islam in prisons is for many prisoners about getting slightly better food (as it's mistakenly believed that more is spent per person on halal food.) There were similar fads for converting to Mormonism and Orthodox Judaism in the past (the official policy for the Prison Service recognising the latter makes it very difficult, largely because the kosher food genuinely does cost more per meal, though I'm not sure the quality is any better.)

In some prisons, those dietary converts have got a nasty shock when it turns out their radicalised co-religionists actually try to enforce religious adherence and in particular take a decidedly dim view of prisoners using drugs or smuggled in alcohol.

[EastAnglianLefty]

I don't see that the language used at home necessarily matters, providing that they're able to speak the national language fluently.

There is a issue with some older Muslim (primarily Pakistanti) women in the UK not speaking English well, because it limits their ability to have an active life outside the home. There's no issue with a kid using Urdu at home and being fluent enough to get a GCSE in it - it's functionally the same as white couples who bring up their kids to be bilingual, which nobody has an issue with.

[EastAnglianLefty]

Of course, France is a country that makes secularism by far a huge part of its national identity; so part of "being French" certainly involves leaving religion at home (which includes not wearing christian necklaces, or head veils, or turbans, etc).

That description of laïcité is very much a rose-spectacled one. In practice it has always meant an in-group seeking to suppress the culture of another group it looks down upon and wishes to exclude from power. It used to be about the elite marginalising peasants from the Vendée, now it means the elite marginalising Muslims in the banlieue. It's not a national identity, it's a state identity and I don't see that that kind of hypocrisy deserves to be treated with respect.