A Malaysian court has supported a ban on wearing religious turbans in state schools, according to Reuters. The ban applies to wearing a serban, a turban that has become a symbol of Muslim piety.
The court of appeal upheld a government appeal against a 1999 ruling and found that a state school outside the capital, Kuala Lumpur, was within its right to expel three Muslim boys in 1997 for wearing the serban.
Unlike France, where a heated debate has been ongoing for some time concerning a ban on wearing Muslim headscarves, hijabs, in state schools, Islam is the state religion in Malaysia and more than half the Malaysian population is Muslim.
France approved its law earlier this year and it has been applied since the beginning of the school year in September 2004.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled in June that banning Muslim headscarves in state schools does not violate freedom of religion and is a valid way to combat Islamic fundamentalism.