there's more to the context in france for this. i was going to make a longer post, but decided i'll just note a few things and maybe explain them if it's helpful along the way.
1. you can't understand this law without taking the front national into account. the front national is a neo-fascist political party. they've been around since the early 70s and are, in many ways, the french correlate of the populist right in the united states. they've been arguing for a while that the "real france" is white and catholic/christian. so that's the "us"----as over against the is, in particular (because most visible) the north african population. islam is a convenient symbol for them ethnically, and plays to the front's arguments that "real" france is catholic as well. for the front national, france is being "invaded" by "them"---little matter that the vast majority of the north african population of france is french citizens and has been in france for generations.
so the law itself is a shameful capitulation on the part of the mainstream french right to the neo-fascists. and it legitimates them.
2. the socio-economic divisions within the north african population, particularly in the banlieuex, which were for a time the main sources for such traction as "fundamentalism" (whatever that means really) had in france. one irony is that the "fundamentalist" groups were just as much against the mainstream islamic organizations in france (paris in particular)---which did nothing to help these poorer communities---as against the french state.
3. anxiety about what france is, what the french nation-state is given neo-liberalism, given the e.u., etc.---this helps explain the traction of 1 as well.
the central arguments for this law regarding the burkha is the same as was outlined around the 2007 law banning hijab in the schools....that the republic is the assembled public and that public is secular by definition (a legacy of the french revolution, which was, in part, a revolt against religion. you know, catholicism). public space, therefore, is secular. that was the argument.
and it might have appeared other than totally craven had the pope not died a week or two after the hijab ban went into effect. the flag over the assemblé nationale was flown at half mast. so, you see, there's secular and there's secular.
at the same time, this delightful moment mirrors front national discourse--the conflation of catholicism and frenchness (identical, really) as over against what is Outside or Other.
this gives an idea of the way these things have been working. it's not an awesome essay, but it does the job:
OPINIONS
here's the site for the front national:
Front National Le site officiel du Front National
they're pretty foul.