socialmedian: The great debate over national identity

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Source: The Guardian

Nov 08, 2009

Summary

It is a question worthy of a nation that prides itself on its philosophers, but the reasons why it was asked at all have merely deepened political and racial divisions

It is a debate that has divided the country, cut through party lines, and united arch-rivals in a bid to define the nation. But if the controversy it has provoked is unusual, it is because this is no ordinary debate.

Ever since its launch by Eric Besson, the minister for immigration and national identity, Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to hold a national discussion on the elusive quality of what it is to be French has been greeted by protest – much of it over whether the question should be asked in the first place.

The plan is to hold grassroots meetings in all corners of France over the next three months. But by framing the debate in a way that implied foreigners were a threat to the nation, some said Sarkozy was offending France's large immigrant population and damaging historic values of openness. As well as a discussion of the singing of the Marseillaise in schools, Besson wants the burqa – worn by a

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