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Comment by yardie | Hacker News Reader

I've traveled between London and Paris frequently. I found the visibility of fundamentalist muslims in the UK to be much higher than anywhere in France. The burka and niqab, for example, is not only illegal but even before being so it was extremely unpopular in France (I believe the estimate was ~200 for the entire country). Yet, walking around London and it's outskirts this was a common sight.

France has managed to avoid most islamic extremists by working closely with local mosques; by not treating them as the enemy but as a local resource. The extremists are spreading their views through the internet. They are not welcome in the mosque.

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> The burka and niqab, for example, is not only illegal but even before being so it was extremely unpopular in France (I believe the estimate was ~200 for the entire country). Yet, walking around London and it's outskirts this was a common sight.

I think outlawing religious dress or other iconography simply ends up giving ammunition to religious extremists and further divides already segregated communities from the mainstream.

> France has managed to avoid most islamic extremists

Yet any extremist can literally walk into France and terrorize, which is essentially what's happened.

So perhaps the biggest difference the fact that Britain has a physical border wall?

He was originally from Tunisia, there is a large body of water that separates them from France. Extremists can arrive by plane or boat. The same way they can get into the UK.

Not in the significant numbers that have been coming into France by way of land.

Statistically speaking, the fewer terrorists you allow into your country, combined with the fewer amounts of terrorist organizations you allow to operate in your country, the fewer terrorist attacks you will have.

"The burka and niqab, for example, is not only illegal but even before being so it was extremely unpopular in France"

Niqaab/burka != terrorist

No, it is an indicator of fundamentalists who, I feel, hold some really regressive and oppressive views on women and Western society. Extremism is the more virulent version of fundamentalists.

The UK has decided that freedom of religion, no matter how intolerant it actually is, is to be protected. Even if it denies some human rights. France has decided that freedom of religion cannot supersede human rights, ever.

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