France to ban the burka?

http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15270861&source=most_commented

This is interesting. France and Islam have never really gone together that well, but to ban the burka is a bit extreme. I didn't agree with banning headscarves in schools, but I saw the point of it in a secular society - I wouldn't have raised huge objections.

But to ban a certain type of clothing of a large religious minority in a given country surely flies in the face of what secularism is all about. Maybe I have it wrong, but my interpretation of a secular society is not one where no religion is tolerated but one where all religions are tolerated to an equal level. Bearing this in mind, the burka should no more be banned in public then the crucifix.

My other problem is the moral and cultural superiority complex France is displaying, in assuming that the wearing of the burka is a symbol of debasement. Consider the following from the economist's article

"as Dounia Bouzar, a French Muslim anthropologist, pointed out to the commission, most of the women she sees wearing the niqab are young. Intelligence sources suggest that 90% of them are under 40. Two-thirds are French nationals, half of them second- or third-generation immigrants, and nearly a quarter are converts. In other words, this is not an influx of women from the Gulf, but a statement by young French Muslim women, whose own mothers did not cover their faces."

No one should be forced to wear a burka, but that is clearly not what is happening here. Surely no one should be forced not to either? The West has this whole thing about civil liberties, but when put to the test they seem to come with an "as long as it suits our agenda" tag.