PARIS: Mahmoud Bourassi speaks softly about tolerance here, about the need for his country to respect his religion and for people of his faith to remember that beyond being Muslim they are also French.

To many of his countrymen, though, Bourassi is someone they should fear. They see him as a terrorist in the making, if not a terrorist already, a young man moving towards a brand of religious extremism.

Their evidence: His age and his attention to Islam. He is 28. He prays five times a day. He does not drink alcohol. He is mildly political. His mother covers her head with a scarf.

"There is no conflict in being French and Muslim at the same time, in my view," Bourassi said. "I'm French in my way of speaking, in my sense of humour, and I look at the world through French eyes. "But a lot of French don't want to see me as French. They want me invisible, and if they see me as Muslim, they associate that with violence, terrorism and hate."

The government and Muslim leaders agree on at least one thing: the number of real fundamentalists is growing. France is home to about 5 million Muslims - eight per cent of the population - and their numbers are increasing quickly.

As one way to protect itself against religious extremism, the French government is clamping down on religious symbolism. This month the French parliament approved a ban on headscarves in public schools; its passage into law is expected this spring.

The logic of the legislation works like this: For a Muslim to become a religious extremist is to first embrace Muslim symbols - headscarves for women, beards for men.

By eliminating as many of those symbols as possible, the logic continues, this step to extremism is removed. So far, though, the legislation has backfired.

Tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims - and between Mus lims divided by the ban - have increased in the country. Thousands of Muslims - most of them young and many who kept their religion in their homes and mosques, just as the French government preferred it - have taken to the street in protests.

The town of Bondy, a suburb north of Paris, is dominated by public housing apartment buildings, some of them 14 stories tall, clustered on lots that are mostly cement and hardened mud.

That so many Muslims live in such ghettos, as they areknown here, is an indication of the failures at economic integration. Most Muslims simply cannot afford to live elsewhere; they depend on government subsidies to live here.

The segregation is a major factor in pushing some Muslims to go beyondpractising their faith to using its symbols to be confrontational, says Khalid Mandani, a successful Moroccan-born businessmanand non-practising Muslim who advises the government on integration issues.

"These are frustrated young men who face racism and discrimi nation on a daily basis, and as this happens, they reach for somewhere to belong," Khalid says.

Earlier this month, thousands of Muslims, mostly women and men intheir 20s, clogged the streets of Paris in peaceful protests against the ban on headscarves. They played loud Arabic music. They chanted that their religion would not be suppressed.

The most tellingscenes of the marches, though, were the women: Their heads were covered with scarves and their bodies were wrapped in French flags. Banners they carried said, "The headscarf is my modesty," "No exclusion," and "I am French and Muslim."

The actions of the French government have created a situation inwhich, on this single issue, moderates share a view with the militants who attacked the United States. The result among many Frenchmen is to lump the moderates with the extremists. -Dawn/The LAT-WP News Service (c) The Baltimore Sun.