Meredith I know you mean well,I appreciate your point. But you are seeing this in terms of black and white missing the various shades of greys involved,that's why we need some kind of state intervention[preferably very mild,to see that things don't get ugly]
This law is discriminatory. Plain and simple.
France already is on tense terms with its Muslim community with accusations of biased and unfair targeting
What has now happened is people have basically taken a sector of the populace that is already feeling outside of the mainstream and made rules specifically aimed at their exercise of religion.
I hope you support Muslim countries limiting other groups freedom of expression. If you do support it, at least you get points for consistency.
State intervention on this? No thank you.