More and more, the Laïcité has been transmogrified from a tool to separate church from state into a particularly cruel and hypocritical form of pseudo-secularism. It’s not a co-incidence that change has tracked in degree and intensity with Muslim immigration to France (and also to Quebec, where similar crappiness is afoot).
ETA [consolidating replies to deleted comments]:
Tthe problem here isn’t one of secularism per se but rather hypocritical secularism that gives the white Christian and Catholic majority loopholes to allow their religion’s food rules as the “default” while denying that privilege to others.
Specifically, it allows towns run by anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic bigots to make their schools less welcoming to Muslim and Jewish students while additionally allowing them additional the opportunity to preserve Catholic dietary customs.
I’ll put money on some small towns in France “co-incidentally” always serving fish on Fridays. In’m also sure if the French government mandated all vegetarian school lunches the leaders and many residents of those same towns would be objecting to it as an attack on national culture (because it’s not really about animal rights or climate change for them).
Secularism can co-exist with religious pluralism. That isn’t the case with the Laïcité as it’s been practised in France.
French public schools are famous for providing healthy and nutritious lunches for all students (Muslim ones now excepted).
