WHEN author Samuel P. Huntington published his book his central thesis that cultural fault-lines would divide the world in the 21st century in much the same way ideological rifts defined 20th-century international relations was strenuously denied by politicians and academics.

There were similar denials when the Bush Administration was on the eve of its military intervention in Iraq. Once the invasion was under way President Bush had to scramble to deny that when he talked about a "crusade" to oust Saddam Hussein he was not thinking in terms of the Christian Crusaders who invaded the Holy Land and waged brutal warfare against the Muslim peoples living there before being expelled by the Kurdish warlord Saladin. Those periodic holy wars between Christians and Muslims lasted some 500 years.

Today the Muslim world may well believe that it is once again under siege by the Christian world. Western troops have once again invaded Muslim lands while the Christian world looks suspiciously at the rise of what it calls Islamic fundamentalism.

Recently Europe's ancient conflict with the Muslim world has come to the fore once again. When France's national assembly voted overwhelmingly to ban all religious emblems and symbols from its state schools, claiming that it must protect the secular nature of the state, the focus of the ban was on the Muslim hijab ? the scarf worn by Muslim women and girls to cover their hair.

To convince the Muslim community in France that this law is not strictly pointed at them, the assembly also banned the Jewish yarmulke and Sikh turbans as well as the wearing of large Christian crosses. When hundreds of Sikhs took to the streets to protest the new ruling, a French member of the national assembly was heard to remark that he had no idea "those type of people were living here also".

Of course, France could be justly accused of cutting off its nose to spite its face. For it has long had a significant Roman Catholic population and one wonders why all this time it did not feel that the state's secular nature was under threat from Catholic nuns who also cover their hair with habits which denote their particular religious order.

In fact, the covering of a woman's hair is also a well-known Christian rite undertaken by female worshippers going to church (although I have my doubts if fashion-conscious ladies today know the real significance of a woman covering her hair while attending religious services). Style is the real motivation for wearing a hat to church these days among many women.

Another reason for the banishment of so-called religious emblems from French state schools is to keep tensions between Muslim and Jewish minorities out of pubic classrooms. While it might be true that such tensions may be on the rise given the ongoing conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis, again the real reason is not talked about.

For example, the French claim that these two minorities are not integrating into French society as fast as they should. Of course, the real hindrance in this is not religious identity but the persistence of racism and anti-semitism.

has not had a happy history in this regard. Before World War One France was a far more anti-Semitic society than neighbouring Germany. The anti-Jewish sentiment in the country culminated in the famous trail of a French soldier, Alfred Dreyfus, who held a post in the war ministry. In 1894 he was accused of betraying military secrets to the Germans. He was court-martialled and sent to the notorious French penal colony, Devil's Island, in South America.

Drefus was from a well-known Jewish family who pursued his appeals while he was in exile. But when it was discovered that Dreyfus was, in fact, innocent and another man, a Christian Frenchman was guilty, the French high command attempted to suppress the facts and even went so far as to use forged papers to strengthen their case.

However, in a subsequent retrial, which greatly embarrassed the French leadership, Dreyfus was found innocent and reinstated to his military post. The key factor motivating his persecutors was Dreyfus' Jewish heritage ? not his alleged treason.

Similarly, in World War Two the Vichy French regime, in collaboration with the Germans, turned over hundreds of French Jews to the Germans to be used as either slave labour or targeted for extermination in the death camps. Vichy France was, in fact, the only Nazi puppet regime in all of occupied Europe to willingly persecute its Jewish population on such a vast ? even enthusiastic ? scale.

Both the Muslim and Jewish populations in France are, in fact, the largest such groups in Europe, not a small factor in what is going on in that country today.

The tensions between the Jewish and Muslim populations is something of an historic irony given that when the Muslims invaded southern Europe and occupied countries such as Spain (which they ruled for some 800 years), the Jews had greeted the North Africans with open arms.

For the Jews had been oppressed in those formerly Christian lands while the Muslims had allowed them to practise their Jewish religion freely.

Likewise, when Muslim rule was overturned in Spain by Isabella and Ferdinand, she not only expelled the two peoples but initiated the infamous Inquisition which saw stepped-up persecution of the remaining Jews and Muslims who, under pain of death, had to convert to Christianity.

It is clear that the French actions are an example of institutionalised fear as regards the rise of Islam in European countries and many states are looking at the French decision with interest.

Even Britain, known for its tolerance in these matters, has begun to question the loyalty of its Muslim citizens at least according to statements made by some of its Cabinet Ministers and other opinion makers.

But does the wearing of the hijab even amount to the proselytising of the Islamic religion?

French Government, in its efforts to justify its actions, has also stated that Muslim girls are being forced to wear the hijab by their male relatives. But it provided no proof that this is, in fact, the case.

But then who directs the fashion statements of the young? If a woman chooses to show a bit of religious piety by wearing a hijab, she will most likely get a great deal more respect than those at following the dictates of today's fashion trends.

Perhaps that is what is worrying the French, great lovers that they claim to be ? the emergence of women they will have to give real respect to and not approach in the traditional way!

But, no, I am just being cynical. I suspect it's the old fear of Islam that is rearing its head and as the conflicts deepen in and around the Muslim world, then the prospect of Samuel Huntington's clash of civilisations dominating international affairs may be closer than we think.