Abstract
The author studies the growth of religious pluralism in state schools through the case of Muslim students and their wish to express their religious affiliation. Two problems, symptomatic yet different, are highlighted. In France, wearing the Islamic headscarf in school resulted in dress code and discipline problems, with its underlying symbolism causing widespread arguments about laïcité, religious pluralism and integration. The headscarf was only a minor problem in Britain, where the debate over the state funding of Islamic schools was focused primarily on discrimination and religious education within the context of British ethnic and race relations. The data analyzed consist of over 1000 press articles published from 1989 to 1999 by major French and British daily newspapers.