WHY DON’T YOU AMERICANS mind your own business? That, in essence, is what the French thought the other day when a State Department officer took issue with President Jacques Chirac’s proposal to outlaw the wearing of head scarves by Muslim girls, large crosses by Christians, and skullcaps by Jewish boys in public schools.

John Hanford, the U.S. ambassador at large for religious freedom, effectively called on the French to understand that such displays, so long as they are a “heartfelt manifestation” of people’s beliefs and not acts of provocation, constitute “a basic right that should be protected.” A French official was offended, as the French can be, and told the New York Times that “never have you heard a French diplomat comment on an internal debate in the United States.”