 PARIS (Reuters) - A French imam active in Muslim dialogue with Jews has backed a law against full face veils, parting ways with most Muslim leaders in France urging parliamentarians not to vote for a planned "burqa ban". Hassen Chalghoumi, whose mosque stands in a northern Paris suburb where many Muslims live, said women who wanted to cover their faces should move to Saudi Arabia or other Muslim countries where that was a tradition. France's National Assembly is likely to pass a resolution soon denouncing full veils and to try in coming months to hammer out a law forbidding them, deputies say. A parliamentary commission studying the issue, which has been discussed alongside a wider public debate about national identity, is due to publish its recommendations next Tuesday. Le Figaro said on Friday that parliamentary deputies have decided against a general ban on the burqa, but it would not be allowed in public buildings such as hospitals and schools or on public transport services, citing the text of a decision by the commission obtained in advance by the French daily. "This measure would oblige people not only to show their face at the entry to public buildings and services but also to keep their face uncovered for the whole time they are in the public space," Le Figaro quoted the document as saying. President Nicolas Sarkozy calls the veils an affront to women's dignity unwelcome in France, home to about five million Muslims. Fewer than 2,000 women wear the veils, known here as burqas although most are Middle Eastern niqabs showing the eyes. "Yes, I am for a legal ban of the burqa, which has no place in France, a country where women have been voting since 1945," Hassen Chalghoumi, 36, told the daily Le Parisien. Chalghoumi, who has received death threats for his promotion of dialogue with Jews, said that full face veils had no basis in Islam and "belong to a tiny minority tradition reflecting an ideology that scuttles the Muslim religion." "The burqa is a prison for women, a tool of sexist domination and Islamist indoctrination," said Chalghoumi, whose mosque stands in Drancy, site of a wartime camp where Jews were detained before transport to Nazi concentration camps. Chalghoumi criticised some of the tougher measures proposed by conservative politicians, such as imposing fines or cutting off child support payments for veiled women. But the Tunisian-born imam, who is a naturalised French citizen, agreed France should not grant citizenship to immigrant women who cover their faces. "Having French nationality means wanting to take part in society, at school, at work," he said. "But with a bit of cloth over their faces, what can these women share with us? If they want to wear the veil, they can go to a country where it's the tradition, like Saudi Arabia." French Muslim leaders and many opposition politicians oppose any ban, saying it would alienate Muslims and possibly violate civil rights laws. The Star 
 Multiple press reports seem eager to pigeonhole this decision as a racial issue, and a move to cater to a constituency that is described narrowly and somewhat patronizingly as the "white working class." But it is not a racial matter, nor is it about socioeconomic classes; it is a matter of principle for the sake of a free and open society. "British party calls for ban on burkas," from UPI, January 16: LONDON, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- The United Kingdom Independence Party says burkas, the Islamic cloak that covers women from head to toe, should be banned in Britain. The conservative group, which advocates withdrawing from the European Union, issued a call Friday to ban the garments in what was seen as an attempt by the UKIP to expand its appeal to disaffected white, working class voters, The Times of London reported Saturday. "We are taking expert advice on how we could do it," UKIP leader Malcolm Pearson told the newspaper. "It makes sense to ban the burka -- or anything which conceals a woman's face -- in public buildings. But we want to make it possible to ban them in private buildings.
It isn't right that you can't see someone's face in an airport." The Times said the UKIP is the first British party to call for an all-out ban on burkas although the far-right British National Party believes advocates banning them from schools. "We are not Muslim bashing, but this is incompatible with Britain's values of freedom and democracy," Pearson said.
 The French are enjoying a debate about their cultural identity. Obviously the word “enjoying” is a euphemism, since the focus of the debate, whether or not to ban the burqa — full female coverage with an eye screen — in public, has riven the population of France, and by no means along the obvious fault line of Muslim vs. non-Muslim. Algerian-born Fadela Amara, France’s cities minister, reinforced her view in an interview with the Financial Times: “The vast majority of Muslims are against the burqa. It is obvious why. Those who have struggled for women’s rights back home in their own countries — I’m thinking particularly of Algeria — we know what it represents and what the obscurantist political project is that lies behind it, to confiscate the most fundamental liberties.” President Nicolas Sarkozy had called for a ban on the public wearing of the burqa altogether. But as of this writing, apparently a compromise has been struck and the burqa will be banned in public buildings only. A partial ban is better than nothing, though, and may hopefully serve to inject some steel into the spine of other European nations who feel threatened by the rise of anti-Western radicalization amongst their own growing Muslim populations. Some pundits argue that the numbers of women in France in full coverage are small — in the low hundreds. But more recent estimates run much higher. A report by the minister of the interior conservatively estimates there are at least 2,000, not a nugatory figure, considering that 15 years ago there were virtually no niqabs or burqas in France. If they are not banned now, it may be impossible to do so when there are critical masses of them, as there surely will be as radicalization rates trend upward, if not checked. Critics will claim that these garments do no harm to others and nobody has the right to interfere with women’s religious choices in a free society. But President Sarkozy got it right last June in explaining to Parliament why the burqa is “not welcome in the French Republic”: “The burqa is not a sign of religion; it is a sign of subservience.” Sarkozy understands what most people refuse to acknowledge. Full coverage is not about religion; it is about ideology. Full face coverage is an ideological symbol of hatred for democracy, particularly the democratic value of gender equality. While some converts wear full cover as a badge of religious commitment and some educated Muslim young women wear it as a political gesture, by and large full cover goes hand in hand with women leading lives of grim physical and mental deprivation, and often routine, unchallenged, lifelong abuse. Most women wearing the niqab or burqa can never aspire to a Western model of citizenship. They have not been provided with the kind of education or upbringing that would allow them to understand the meaning of freedom as we know it. It is insulting to the intellect to speak of women in these “walking coffins” in the same breath with the words “choice” or “rights.” But to hold such rational views is to beat against a strong current of political correctness. As is now the norm whenever hypersensitive Muslim nerves are brushed by political decisions involving perceived insults to Islam, the French debate on cover as well as the recent referendum-driven ban on the further construction of minarets in Switzerland have provoked a great deal of hand-wringing anxiety amongst Islamophobia-phobic liberals. Unwillingness to criticize the burqa, implying a corollary willingness to abandon these imprisoned women to their fate, even within Western borders, is morally tantamount to depraved indifference to voiceless suffering. Liberals hide behind the iron rubric of non-judgmentalism of other “cultures,” but that strain of logic would have absolved slave owners in the “culture” of pre-Civil War America. Yet even conservatives who agree that fully covered women are chattel and a walking insult to American values struggle with the issue of legislative bans against what is misleadingly considered a garment. It seems draconian to prescribe what any individual can or cannot wear in public. They must first understand that the burqa and niqab are not articles of clothing. They are tents thrown over clothing. In their intention and their effect, they perform the function of a ball and chain. Full cover is worn as a reminder to the wearer that she is not free and to remind the observer that the wearer is a possession, something less than a full human being. More at Pajamas Media
 Of all the people who spoke out against burkas recently, the one who gets threatened is the one who said that she might ban burkas in the future?
A banned radical Islamic organisation has sent a threatening letter to Social Democratic (SPÖ) Women's Minister Gabriele Heinisch-Hosek after she called for a ban on burkas, according to the Österreich newspaper. The newspaper reported today (Weds) that the Hizb ut-Tahrir organisation based in Lebanon had sent it a three-page email after Christmas in which it condemned the minister's remarks last week and threatened her using the sentence from the Koran: "And know that Allah is strong in punishment." The organisation's Vienna spokesman Shaker Assem also called "on Austrian Muslims to cease supporting the SPÖ". Österreich said it had handed the document to the Federal Crime Office (BK), adding that to date there had been no serious investigation of Islamic fundamentalists in Austria. ( more) Source: Austrian Times (English)
 by M. A. Khan French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in a rare speech to lawmakers of both Houses on June 22, 2009, kicked up a controversy by declaring the head-to-toe burka “not a sign of religion” but of “subservience,” which would not be welcome in France. Ignoring criticism, which divided the French, the Sarkozy administration pursued its intended burqa ban by forming a parliamentary committee consisting of 32 lawmakers to investigate whether wearing a burqa trampled Muslim women’s liberty and how the ban could be enacted. The committee, after a protracted investigation involving Muslim community leaders and intellectuals (including Tariq Ramadan), is about to deliver its verdict; recent statements by leading French politicians suggest that a recommendation banning the burqa in public spaces in France is on its way. Islam subjugated both non-Muslims (dhimmis) and the Muslim women. The West, including the French, spearheaded the liberation of dhimmis of the Islamic world in the so-called age of colonialism by direct intervention or through diplomatic pressure (e.g. Iran and Turkey). But the fate of oppressed Muslim women remained largely unchanged as colonial powers avoided intervening in the private affairs of Muslims. Ironically, Muslim women experienced bits of liberation, under the indirect influence of liberal thoughts brought to the Muslim world by the colonists and under their protection. But in the post-colonial world, it is being taken away from them. It should by now be obvious that Muslim societies will not liberate their women, despite the passive influence flowing in from the liberal West. A direct intervention from without remains to be tried. Whether it works or not, the pending French ban on the burqa would constitute the first substantial effort in liberating Muslim women. But this time the French would not be doing it not as a discredited colonial power, but to uphold the Human Rights of its citizens as demanded by both the United Nations and its own Constitution. The move was led by France in 2004, when it banned the wearing of headscarves by Muslim girls in schools (also Christian Crosses, Jewish skullcaps and Sikh Turbans) to keep secular institutions free from religious symbols. The Islamic veil, called the hijab, the niqab or the burqa, and seen by critics as a sign of religious fundamentalism and a tool of suppression of Muslim women, has been banned by various institutions in the European countries of France, Denmark, Netherlands and Belgium. Sarkozy’s comment ignited condemnations from Muslims, as well as non-Muslim leaders and intellectuals, all over the world. Muslims claimed the comment ‘stigmatized’ Islam. Even President Barack Obama, weeks earlier on June 4, 2009, indirectly condemned the limited ban on Muslim headscarves in his Cairo Speech: “ …it is important for western countries to avoid impeding Muslim citizens from practising religion as they see fit, for instance, by dictating what clothes a Muslim woman should wear. We cannot disguise hostility towards any religion behind the pretence of liberalism.” President Sarkozy reaffirmed his commitment to banning the burqa on November 12, saying: “France is a country where there is no place for the burqa, where there is no place for the subservience of women.” The French immigration minister, Eric Besson, said on December16, 2009, that he would like the head-to-toe Muslim veils to be legal grounds for denying citizenship and long-term residence in France. “I want the wearing of the full veil to be systematically considered as proof of insufficient integration into French society,” he said, “creating an obstacle to gaining (French) nationality.” More at Hudson New York
 Tarek Mehanna, 27, was arrested on Oct. 21, 2009, in Sudbury, Massachusetts and charged with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. He allegedly planned to launch terrorist attacks both inside and outside the United States, specifically planning to attack a shopping mall with automatic weapons. Mehanna was a graduate of the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS), where his father Ahmed teaches chemistry. Today, the dean of students at MCPHS issued a directive to students that "any head covering that obscures a student's face may not be worn, either on campus or at clinical sites, except when required for medical reasons." (The full memorandum follows below.) Comment: Banning niqabs and burqas is an excellent security measure and one that all educational and other institutions should follow. Indeed, every "head covering that obscures" every face should be banned in every public space. For dozens of reasons why, see my weblog entry, "Niqabs and Burqas as Security Threats." (December 8, 2009) From: Jean M. Joyce-Brady
Date: Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 3:23 PM
Subject: Revised MCPHS Identification Policy - Beginning January 1, 2010
To: All Students
Cc: All Faculty, All Staff Dear MCPHS Students, As of January 1, 2010, the MCPHS Identification Policy will be revised as stated below. Language in blue font indicates changes in the policy. Human Resources (HR) will be communicating with faculty and staff shortly regarding a similar change to the HR employee identification policy. Thank you for your attention to this policy change. Sincerely, Dean Joyce-Brady IDENTIFICATION POLICY For reasons of safety and security, all students must be readily identifiable while they are on campus and/or engaged in required off-campus activities, including internships and clinical rotations. Therefore, any head covering that obscures a student's face may not be worn, either on campus or at clinical sites, except when required for medical reasons.
In addition, all students are required to wear their College-issued ID at all times when on campus and/or engaged in required off-campus activities, and to show such upon request of a properly identified official or member of the MCPHS staff. Loss of an ID Card should be reported immediately to the MCPHS Department of Public Safety. The fee to replace an I.D. card–for any reason– is $10; application and payment for replacement is made at the Office of the Registrar. The I.D. card also serves as the College library card. Jean M. Joyce-Brady, Ph.D.
Dean of Students
Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences Daniel Pipes
 A French parliamentarian said Tuesday he would file legislation to bar Muslim women from wearing veils that hide their faces in public. President Nicolas Sarkozy has said that burqa-like veils are "not welcome" in France, and a parliamentary panel has been gathering information on the subject to release in a nonbinding report expected next month. Lawmaker Jean-Francois Cope, who heads the president's UMP party in the National Assembly, the lower chamber, suggested Tuesday that he would submit his bill before the panel issues its report. He said he wants the veil banned not just from public buildings but also in the streets of France. "We want a ban in public areas," Cope said. Only a tiny minority of Muslim women in France wear the extreme covering — not required by Islam. Authorities worry such dress may be a gateway to extremism, and say it amounts to an insult to women while also going against the deeply secular nature of France. However, the speaker of the lower chamber, Bernard Accoyer, said he felt his UMP party colleague's plan risks "appearing premature" before the parliamentary panel issues its report. "On such a societal question that (concerns) the fundamental principles of our Republic, the search for a large consensus is a priority," Accoyer said. Muslim leaders and secular experts have told the panel that a full ban could stigmatize all Muslims and would pose enforcement problems. Cope said after a meeting of Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement that he planned to file two distinct texts in January, one of which would ensconce the ban in a larger bill forbidding people from covering their faces on security grounds. The other text would be a resolution regarding respect for women's rights. A resolution approved by lawmakers does not carry the weight of law, but solemnly affirms a principle. Cope suggested a fine could be levied against anyone breaking the ban. However, he also suggested a period of mediation lasting several months "with the women in question and their husbands ... to explain" and discuss the issue. Such a mediation period was put in place after France banned Muslim headscarves from classrooms in 2004 after a marathon parliamentary debate. Other "ostentatious" religious symbols were included in the ban but it targeted headscarves.
 By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor PARIS (Reuters) - France will issue recommendations against full face veils but not pass a law barring Muslim women from wearing them, a leading backer of a legal ban said on Friday. Andre Gerin, chairman of a parliamentary inquiry into use of full face veils in France, reluctantly ruled out a ban one day after President Nicolas Sarkozy repeated his conviction that "France is a country that has no place for the burqa." France banned Muslim headscarves in state schools in 2004 following a similar inquiry and looked set to bring in an outright ban on veils coverings the whole face, such as burqas or niqabs, when it launched the panel last June at the request of Gerin, a Communist deputy from Lyon. But at its weekly hearings, legal experts, local officials, Muslim leaders and even some militant secularists have told the deputies on the panel that a ban could be anti-constitutional, counterproductive and impossible to enforce. Gerin, who denounces the head-to-toe veils as "walking coffins," told Europe 1 radio: "We'll end up with recommendations ... not a law in itself against the burqa, maybe a symbolic law, a law of liberation (of women)." Backing off from a complete ban, he said the panel might propose "radical measures" to ban full face veils in municipal hospitals and other public institutions, but gave no details. France, whose five million Muslims make up Europe's largest Islamic minority, has been criticized in the Muslim world for considering a burqa ban. French Islamic community leaders have warned against passing a law that would stigmatize Muslims. Skepticism about a ban grew after a police report said only 367 women in France wore such veils, which are common in Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia but not in the North African countries where most Muslim immigrants to France came from. Another estimate spoke of about a thousand such veils. The veil inquiry coincides with Sarkozy's plan for a public debate about immigration and national identity due to culminate in a conference just before regional elections next March. The opposition Socialist Party accuses him of stirring up the issue to poach anti-immigration voters from the far-right. Winning those voters away from the National Front party was a key to Sarkozy's election as president in 2007. Gerin said the panel was studying a possible ban on all face coverings in public, an approach experts also cast doubt on. "We can't impose a state of permanent control on citizens," legal expert Remi Schwartz told the panel. "That would mean everyone should be identifiable at all times, which would make public space into a vast zone of video surveillance." Read more,,,, Reuters
 PARIS — French President Nicolas Sarkozy says there is no place for full face and body veils such as the burqa, or for the debasement of women, in France. Sarkozy says all beliefs will be respected in France but says "becoming French means adhering to a form of civilization, to values, to morals." Sarkozy said Thursday during a speech on national identity that "France is a country where there is no place for the burqa."
France has a large Muslim community but only a small minority of French Muslim women wear burqas, common in Afghanistan, or other face-covering veils. Sarkozy said in June that burqas would not be welcome in France.
Since then a parliamentary panel has been looking into the possibility of banning them in public. Source: FoxNews
 Wearing the burqa — the traditional female covering for Muslim women — is “contrary” to French values, Immigration Minister Eric Besson said in an interview Sunday. The remarks come just under a week after three Afghans were deported from France back to Kabul, and Besson has once again sparked the outrage of French opposition members with his claims that French culture is being lost on immigrants. “I want to launch a major debate over national values and identity,” Besson said in an interview quoted by Radio France Internationale.
Besson asserts that immigrants should have a certain understanding of the French language, the country's history and French culture “to reaffirm the values of identity and the pride of being French,” Besson said. Besson called the burqa “inacceptable” in France, but stopped short of calling for a public ban of the garment. Besson defended the country's decision to deport three undocumented Afghan immigrants last week, and said that he will continue the country's hard-line approach to illegal immigrants to the country. France has already deported 21,000 undocumented immigrants in 2009.
 On November 27th Swiss citizens will be asked to vote on the anti-minaret initiative. According to SonntagsZeitung, the occasion will be used to collect signatures for a future anti-burka initiative.Action will take place November 2nd, with leaflets being distributed against the burqa. Jann-Andrea Thöny, of the youth branch of the Swiss People's Party, said that they want to draw attention to Islamization and against the provocation of the burqa. "These arguments make me laugh," replied Hisham Maizar, president of the Federation of Swiss Islamic Organizations. Source: 20min (French) See also: * Switzerland: Survey shows 51% against minaret ban* Switzerland: Anti-minaret posters accused of inciting hatred
 By Liz HullA Muslim student has been banned from enrolling at a college because she refused to remove her burkha. Shawana Bilqes, 18, wanted to wear the garment - which covers her body and face, leaving only her eyes visible - during lessons. But staff at Burnley College refused to enrol her, claiming the burkha was a barrier to 'safety and communication'. In a strongly worded statement, the college said 'unimpeded' face to face contact between teachers and students was vital. Miss Bilqes, who wanted to study an access course for a diploma, has now been forced to abandon her plans and is looking elsewhere to complete her studies.
Yesterday she said: 'It is my choice to wear the veil.
'I live around the corner from the college in an area where there are so many practising Muslims. 'I tried to compromise but they wouldn't. The college sent me a letter to say I could continue with my course if I stopped wearing the veil. 'We are in the 21st century and we get people from all walks of life. I'm in the police cadets as well and yet it's not a problem wearing the veil there.' John Smith, principal of the college, in Burnley, defended the actions of his staff. He said that a student's face must be fully visible to maintain high standards of teaching between staff and pupils, adding that it was crucial to wear photo ID around the campus for security reasons.
'We do require all students of Burnley College to have their faces visible when at the college,' he said. 'We are determined to maintain the highest standards of teaching and learning. To do this effectively requires unimpeded communication from the teacher to all students, from the students to the teacher and between student and student. 'It is not possible to maintain this essential full communication if the face of any student is not fully visible. 'We are also determined to provide a safe environment for all our students. Central to this is that all members of the college community should be identifiable at all times. 'To this end we require students and staff to wear a security card which displays their photograph. 'Where individuals decline to comply, then I am afraid we cannot accommodate them.' Read more at Mail Online H/T: WeaselZippers
 ELAINE GANLEY PARIS (AP) — The head of France's Muslim council said Wednesday that the full-body veil worn by a minority of Muslims in France is an "entry way" to radical Islam, but that a national debate over whether to ban the garment in public is stigmatizing the entire Muslim community. Mohammed Moussaoui told a panel of lawmakers that any decision to outlaw the veils that cover the body and face risks feeding a sense of discrimination. The debate "has taken on unexpected proportions" and "Muslims are increasingly finding themselves confronted with stereotypes whose consequence is the stigmatization of an entire religion," Moussaoui said, referring to what many Muslims say is a tendency to group them into a single unit be they moderate or radical. Moussaoui heads the French Council of the Muslim Faith, or CFCM, which groups the various tendencies of Islam in France and serves, among other things, as a conduit for dialogue with French authorities. The council, which includes some Muslim fundamentalists, was called to testify before parliamentarians holding hearings that could lay the groundwork for an law banning Muslim women from wearing head-to-toe and face-covering veils in public. Some claim the number of women — and girls — covered by niqabs or burqas is rising. President Nicolas Sarkozy has said that such robes make "prisoners" of women and won't be welcome in France, a position that spurred the parliamentary inquiry. Islam is the second religion in France after Roman Catholicism. With an estimated 5 million Muslims, France has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe. Moussaoui said the council agrees the wearing of full-body robes is not required by Islam but is instead a religious practice of an "extremely marginal" minority of Muslim women.
Still, he said in a prepared speech approved by all factions in the Muslim grouping, such a garment "should not be a motive for incriminating those who wear it." The Muslim grouping said it preferred to try to dissuade women from wearing the veil through dialogue, saying any law could prove counterproductive, raising sympathy for those who wear the garment and feeding radical agendas. The council asked lawmakers to form a commission to inquire about what it said was a rise in Islamophobia and find ways to fight it even such anti-Islamic prejudice, like the full-body veil, "is marginal." Some lawmakers took exception to what the said was the "timid" approach of the five-man Muslim panel, saying the full veil has implications for a range of issues from women's rights to public safety and terrorism. "It is an extreme practice and we don't want it to install itself on the national territory," Moussaoui then said. He later told The Associated Press that he considered the wearing of the full-body veil to be an "entry way" to a radical interpretation of Islam, "and there is a risk of falling further." Source: NewsOK
 Two female Kuwaiti MPs, Rola Dashti and Aseel Al-Awadhi, are defying the country's powerful Islamist movement by refusing to wear the hijab, or headscarf, in parliament. The MPs, who were among the first four women to be elected to the country's National Assembly in May, have angered their Islamist colleagues, who say they say they are flouting sharia, or Islamic law. One of the two is going further by demanding the scrapping of an amendment to electoral regulations that says they have to observe sharia in parliament. "You can't force a woman going to the mall to wear a hijab and you can't force a woman going to work to wear the hijab," the MP, Rola Dashti, told The Daily Telegraph. "This is not Iran or Saudi Arabia." The MPs' stand is part of a backlash against the fashion for stricter dress codes for women across the Arab world. Last week, the rector of al-Azhar University in Cairo, traditionally the principal seat of Sunni Islamic learning, banned women students from wearing the face veil in women-only classes and student dormitories, and was followed by other academic institutions there. Students at Khalifa University in Sharjah, the most conservative of the seven city-states that make up the United Arab Emirates, have also reportedly been told to stop wearing the veil, known in Arabic as the niqab. In Kuwait, the issue has arisen as part of a campaign by Dr Dashti, one of the country's leading economists as well as a women's rights activist and politician, against what she regards as unconstitutional implementation of sharia. As with all four women MPs, she has a doctorate from the United States. When electoral law was changed in 2005 to allow women in Kuwait to vote and stand for parliament, Islamists inserted a law-minute rider that "women as voters and MPs" would have to follow sharia.
It did not specify precisely where or how. Read more here,,,, Source: Telegraph
 Is The Burqa a Religious or Political Statement? Finally, at the midnight hour, some European governments have begun to fight back—not against the Islamification of Europe but against inhumane, even barbaric political practices in the name of religion which violate western standards of universal human rights. Thus, first France, but now Italy have called for a ban on the burqa. Italy’s Northern League proposal “aims at amending a 1975 law, introduced amid concern over domestic terrorism, which bans anyone wearing anything which makes their identification impossible….. The Northern League also has the backing of Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party. The League’s Roberto Cota said: ‘We are not racist and we have nothing against Muslims but the law must be equal for everyone. When France’s President Sarkozy first called for a similar ban, a self-identified branch of al-Qaeda in Northern Africa threatened to attack France over this. Predictably, Centre left opposition MPs “criticized the Italian proposal and said it was ‘unconstitutional because it infringes on religious freedom and justifying it because of law and order is totally out of place.’ Not so fast. Verily, we live in an age of miracles; thus, none other than Sheikh Mohammed Tantawi, the leading religious figure of Al-Azhar, was, just the other day, “reportedly angered” when he toured a school in Cairo and saw a girl wearing “niqab” which means that her face was masked or possibly that she was wearing a full head, face, and body covering. “Sheikh Tantawi, regarded by many as Egypt’s Imam and Sunni Islam’s foremost spiritual authority, asked the teenage girl to remove her veil saying: “The niqab is a tradition, it has no connection with religion.”
The imam instructed the girl, a pupil at a secondary school in Cairo’s Madinet Nasr suburb, never to wear the niqab again and promised to issue a fatwa, or religious edict, against its use in schools. The ruling will not affect use of the hijab, the Islamic headscarf worn by most Muslim women in Egypt. Following the imam’s lead, Egypt’s minister of higher education is to ban female undergraduates from wearing the niqab from the country’s public universities, Cairo’s Al-Masri Al-Yom newspaper reported. “ Again, don’t rejoice too soon. Even the very influential Sheikh Tantawi has his fundamentalist detractors who have excoriated him for supporting France’s ban on hijab in public schools and for shaking hands with Israeli President Shimon Peres. And, clearly, the Egyptian government is unhappy about the gathering forces of Islamic fundamentalism which consistently manipulate women and women’s clothing as symbolic political statements. Some have even called for more severe Islamic clothing for women in which only one eye (Algerian style) can show.
The Egyptian government understands that it is at risk vis a vis Islamic fundamentalists. Now, some European politicians understand this too. Read more here,,,, Source: Chesler Chronicles
 Facing the ban: A woman dressed in the burqa, or
full Islamic dress, with her face covered by a mask.
Italian MPs are considering a
bill banning the full garment.By Nick Pisa Italy today became the latest European government to announce it was considering introducing a law which would make wearing a burqa illegal. MPs from the anti-immigration Northern League party, a member of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's ruling right wing coalition, have presented the proposal in a bill. It comes just weeks after France also said that it was considering making the wearing of burqas by Muslim women illegal - a statement which prompted al Qaeda terrorists to vow revenge if it was banned. Italy has more than one million Muslims but it is rare to see women wearing the full burqa. There have been incidents, especially in northern cities such as Milan and Verona, where women wearing it have been asked to remove at least the face veil. Last month centre-right politician Daniela Santanche was involved in clashes with Muslims after she attended an end of Ramadan festival and urged women to remove their burqas. There has also been a backlash against the 'burkini', a bathing costume that is suitable for Islamic dress. Several Musilim women who have used swimming pools wearing burkinis in Italy have been asked to leave, with officials claiming the garments are 'unhygienic'. The Northern League's proposal aims at amending a 1975 law, introduced amid concern over domestic terrorism, which bans anyone wearing anything which makes their identification impossible. The only exceptions are for 'justified cause' - which until now has been interpreted to include religious reasons in court rulings against local bans on the burqa. The Northern League also has the backing of Berlusconi's People of Freedom party. The League's Roberto Cota said: 'We are not racist and we have nothing against Muslims but the law must be equal for everyone. Read more ...Source: Daily Mail
 By Nick PisaItaly today became the latest European government to announce it was considering introducing a law which would make wearing a burqa illegal. MPs from the anti-immigration Northern League party, a member of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's ruling right wing coalition, have presented the proposal in a bill. It comes just weeks after France also said that it was considering making the wearing of burqas by Muslim women illegal - a statement which prompted al Qaeda terrorists to vow revenge if it was banned. Italy has more than one million Muslims but it is rare to see women wearing the full burqa. There have been incidents, especially in northern cities such as Milan and Verona, where women wearing it have been asked to remove at least the face veil. Last month centre-right politician Daniela Santanche was involved in clashes with Muslims after she attended an end of Ramadan festival and urged women to remove their burqas. There has also been a backlash against the 'burkini', a bathing costume that is suitable for Islamic dress. Several Musilim women who have used swimming pools wearing burkinis in Italy have been asked to leave, with officials claiming the garments are 'unhygienic'. The Northern League's proposal aims at amending a 1975 law, introduced amid concern over domestic terrorism, which bans anyone wearing anything which makes their identification impossible. The only exceptions are for 'justified cause' - which until now has been interpreted to include religious reasons in court rulings against local bans on the burqa. The Northern League also has the backing of Berlusconi's People of Freedom party. The League's Roberto Cota said: 'We are not racist and we have nothing against Muslims but the law must be equal for everyone. 'The aim of this bill is to clarify the 1975 law in a definitive way and allow the ban to be extended to garments worn for reasons of religious affiliation.' MP Barbara Saltamartini, of the People of Freedom, said:'Banning the burqa can not be considered anti-Muslim because wearing it is not obligatory in Islam. 'The Imam of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the highest authority in Sunni Islam, has just stated unequivocally that Muslim women have the right to their own identity and that the burqa is not part of Muslim tradition. 'This position is of extreme importance not only because it dismantles false myths perpetrated by a patriarchal fundamentalism, but also because it shows how the dignity of a women is compatible with the symbols and values of Islam. 'It would be absurd now if countries like Egypt ban this instrument of submission and we continue to avoid dealing with the question.' Centre left opposition MPs criticised the proposal and said it was 'unconstitutional because it infringes on religious freedom and justifying it because of law and order is totally out of place.' Source: Daily Mail Online
Hijab (The Headscarf)—Yes; The Burqa—No
Pajamas Media 15 September 2009 Banning the burqa in the West might be one way to ban Islamist fundamentalism and the barbaric subordination of girls and women in certain immigrant communities. For this reason, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and French Minister Fadela Amara have again called for this ban. Earlier today, French immigration Minister, Eric Besson, called the burqa “debased.” I would hope that the French take their argument further. In the past, they have mainly cited security concerns: Burqa wearing women might be “racially” attacked or burqa wearers themselves might be terrorists or criminals who are planning to attack or rob civilians. I would hope that the French also argue for such a ban on women’s rights/human rights grounds, as I have already proposed. Thus, clothing which completely covers the face and head in a way which muffles speech, hearing, and vision, which limits or prevents all human communication and identification, and which, in effect, functions like an isolation chamber is, by definition, a violation of human rights. None of this applies to hijab, the Islamic headscarf, which has already been banned in France in school and which is the subject of protest and controversy across Europe.
With all due respect for the good intentions of the French, perhaps Western governments should not automatically or necessarily ban hijab for women; the matter is tricky and complicated for girls as we have seen, as city after city across Europe has discovered. Indeed, this is a complex and challenging matter. Today, in Holland, in the very country that is putting the sober and very brave parliamentarian,Geert Wilders on trial for exercising his political free speech—another bright Dutch light, Trouw historian Tineke Bennema has called on “women who were born in the Netherlands to voluntarily put on a headscarf ‘out of solidarity’ with the hijab wearers.” You know, like the Danes allegedly once wore the yellow Jewish star. Read All here: http://europenews.dk/en/node/26287
 By Ian SparksFrance's hardline immigration minister has launched a fresh demand to ban the burkha - decribed by president Nicolas Sarkozy a sign of 'subservience and debasement'. Eric Besson said the Islamic full head and body covers were 'unacceptable' and not welcome in France. His demand for a total ban comes after 58 French MPs called last June for a public inquiry on whether it should be illegal for women to hide their faces in public. Mr Sarkozy backed the move, saying at the time: 'This garment makes women prisoners and deprives them of their identity. 'I say solemnly that they are not welcome on the territory of the French Republic.' Women's rights groups and Left-wing MPs went even further, descibing the item as a 'walking coffin' and and a 'mobile prison'. A burkha refers to a full-body covering worn largely in Afghanistan with only a mesh screen over the eyes, while a niqab is a full-body veil, often in black, with slits for the eyes. France - home to Europe's largest five million Muslim population - already passed a law in 2004 forbidding students and staff from wearing veils and other religious symbols in schools as part of a drive to defend secularism. Earlier this year Mr Besson said he though a law banning burkhas and niqabs would only 'create tensions'. But he has now said he wants Islamic garments which cover the face - worn by an estimated 2,000 women in France - outlawed everywhere. He said yesterday: 'I recognise that my views have now evolved. 'The burkha is unacceptable and contrary to the principles of national identity, of sexual equality and of the French Republic.'
Mr Besson said: 'The burkha is unacceptable and contrary to the principles of national identity, of sexual equality and of the French Republic' Left-wing MP Andre Gerin, who is heading the government commission on burkhas and niqabs, added: 'We find it intolerable to see images of these imprisoned women when they come from Iran, Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia.
'They are totally unacceptable on the territory of the French Republic.'
The latest debate over the burkha comes after a French mother was last month banned from wearing a 'burkini' swimsuit at her local swimming pool. Carole, a 35-year-old Muslim convert, was told by the manager of pool in Emerainville, near Paris, that the garment was 'inappropriate' on hygiene grounds. The woman said she bought her burkini for £40 during a holiday in Dubai, adding: 'I was told that it would allow me the pleasure of bathing without showing off my body, which is what Islam recommends.'
She now intended to take her local council to court on the grounds that the ban was not a hygiene issue but a political issue. In July, Al Qaeda terrorists vowed revenge on France if it banned the burkha on its streets. Leaders of Al Qaeda's North African network wrote on an Islamic extremist website: 'French Muslims should react to this ban with the utmost hostility. 'We will seek dreadful revenge on France by all means at our disposal, for the honour of our daughters and sisters.'
The government inquiry in the legality of the burkha and niqab is due to reveal its findings next month. Source: Mail Online
Europe's Burqa Wars
by Daniel Pipes - (August 25, 2005) updated Aug 17, 2009 Aug. 15, 2009 update: Fadela Amara, a former women's rights campaigner and now minister for urban regeneration in France – and herself a Muslim, says she favors the burqa "not existing in my country" as a means to stop the spread of the "gangrene, the cancer of radical Islam which completely distorts the message of Islam."
The garment represents, she told the Financial Times, "not a piece of fabric but the political manipulation of a religion that enslaves women and disputes the principal of equality between men and women, one of the founding principles of our republic." It also represents "the oppression of women, their enslavement, their humiliation." In addition to sexual oppression and poverty, she asserts, Muslim women suffer "a third form of oppression - extreme religiosity." She holds that the "vast majority of Muslims" are against the burqa.
Eliminating the burqa helps women stand up to the extremists. "Those who have struggled for women's rights back home in their own countries - I'm thinking particularly of Algeria - we know what it represents and what the obscurantist political project is that lies behind it, to confiscate the most fundamental liberties."
Naser Khader, integration spokesman for Denmark's Conservative Party
Aug. 17, 2009 update: Naser Khader, a Muslim from Syria, participant in the Modern Muslims group, and integration spokesman for Denmark's Conservative Party, says the burqa is "un-Danish" and should be completely banned in public places: "We do not want to see burqas in Denmark." The head covering symbolizes the oppression of women and not Islamic. Rather, "The modern burqa was instituted by the Taliban when it came to power" and is "a symbol of the Taliban." The same would apply to the niqab but not to lesser forms of covering such as the hijab.
The Conservative Party won support of its ally in the government, the Danish People's Party, and also (surprisingly) the opposition Social Democrats. But the prime minister's Liberal Party rejected the idea, with one slight exception: "Burqas should not be permitted for people who work in the public sector," said the party's political spokesperson, Peter Christiansen. "But that's where we draw the line."
Comments: (1) How interesting that two major Muslim politicians, Amara in France and Khader in Denmark, have almost simultaneously come out with the same reasoning and policy prescription. Their resolve supports my view that Muslims must battle and ultimately defeat radical Islam, even in the West. (2) To those who claim no moderate Muslim exist, Amara and Khader are the unicorns who do exist.
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PARIS (Reuters) - A French imam active in Muslim dialogue with Jews has backed a law against full face veils, parting ways with most Muslim leaders in France urging parliamentarians not to vote for a planned "burqa ban".
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