Three faces of Islam -- two veiled, one not -- have been on display in Europe, sending shivers up British, French and some Belgian spines.

The most moderate story comes from Belgium, where a young, third-generation Turkish immigrant was elected to parliament. In spite of some agitation on the right, the first European MP to wear a headscarf was sworn in without fuss. Her biggest challenge so far seems to be getting people to focus on her ideas not her clothes.

In Britain, the BBC appointed a Muslim man as head of its religious and ethical broadcasting. A quick Google search reveals that he sports a small goatee, an uncovered head and as nice a smile as the new Belgian MP. Yet his appointment has led to hundreds of complaints from Anglicans across the nation and to the tabling of a motion at the Church of England's General Synod to condemn the decline of religious programming on BBC television.

The protesters may think that Britain is a Christian state, but this is not grounded in reality: Over half the population are reportedly atheists. Some research even suggests that by the year 2035 there may be more practicing Muslims (about 1.96 million) in Britain than active Christians (1.63 million) and that by 2050 practicing Hindus could outnumber active Christians. The Church of England disagrees with these findings (but then it would, wouldn't it?)

The most strident voice of outrage comes from France, where President Nicolas Sarkozy used the pomp and ceremony of a Versailles address to parliament -- the first such speech since the 19th century thanks to a constitutional amendment he shepherded -- to blast the burqa (the cloak and face netting favored by some Muslim women).

None of the real issues France faces -- a record budget deficit, a contracting economy and fast-growing unemployment -- aroused as much passion from the French president. One suspects the burqa has been a handy matador's cloak to redirect a raging public.

One really needs Gilbert and Sullivan to puncture the French president's pretensions. You can just imagine a new comic opera featuring veiled women twirling round the stage while the chorus sings about their mothers and their sisters and their aunts and a grim Sarkozy hovers in the background armed with a little list.

In the absence of G&S there is no option but to treat the subject seriously and, in fact, it is a serious subject. It goes to the heart of the question: What is France? Who are the British and the Belgians? And what is a nation-state?

The dark side of the 19th century nationalism that created European countries is never far below the surface, ready to be called up by ideologues and politicians in trouble. Around the world, countries are still struggling with the integration of large populations that look nothing like their perceived self-image. But one, perhaps naively, expects 21st-century Europe to be different.

Instead, the June elections for the European parliament marked a shift to the right across the continent, which makes it even more alarming that Mr. Sarkozy would use a major speech to focus on an issue closely tied in people's minds with "them."

Whether they are veiled or not, black or white, religious or secular, liberal or conservative, France's 5 million immigrants have been reminded that they are the other. Does Mr. Sarkozy even care that the women whose freedom he allegedly wants to protect from religious ideologues may end up not being able to go out at all if they cannot wear the burqa?

The United States, the country the southern hemisphere most loves to hate, is one of the few where there is a nationalism that at least in theory is built on multi-ethnic religious and cultural foundations (and on the ashes of a once-thriving native American culture). Imperfect as it is, the United States is a model of what inclusiveness could look like.

When I mentioned this in a talk on the Middle East, where neither Arab countries, Israel or the rest have provided democratic equality to their diverse ethnic and religious peoples, an African American warned me against citing the United States as a model given the blacks' bitter experience of slavery, Jim Crow laws and deep-rooted discrimination.

Of course, that was pre-Obama. The election of an "other" in a Western nation has not yet solved any of the problems he was elected to address, but at least it has reaffirmed the potential of a different model, one towards which Europe is still painfully groping.