I must admit that I do not know French culture or government well enough to know if your judgement is accurate, but if so, then you are right.

If that is indeed the case, then France is effectively motivating its society to discourage - rather than encourage - the kind of mutual respect for religious mores that enables the societies of most other developed nations to function with much less religious violence despite the presence of multiple major religions.

Besides, I think we've all seen over the past century that nations where there is no religion can be every bit as cruel as those nations that require religion.