Fresh reports from Paris state that a French parliament report has called for a ban on the full Islamic veil, saying Muslim women who wear the burqa were posing an "unacceptable" challenge to French values.
The panel of 32 French lawmakers recommended a ban on the face-covering veil in all schools, hospitals, public transport and government offices. It was deemed as the broadest move yet to restrict Muslim dress in France.
The commission however stopped short of proposing broad legislation to outlaw the burqa in the streets, in shopping centers and other public venues after raising doubts about the constitutionality of such a move.
The parliamentarians seem to connect the wearing of the burqa "as a symbol of the exportation of a radical brand of fundamentalism and sectarianism to France".
They feel that the all-encompassing veil was "contrary to the values of the republic".
The effect of such position, once converted in French law, would be "that women who turn up at the post office or any government building wearing the full veil would be denied services such as a work visa, residency papers or French citizenship".
The opposition Socialists refuse to endorse the final report to protest the government's launching of “a debate on national identity”, which has exposed French fears about Islam.
Critics of the "burqa debate" have warned that it risks stigmatizing France's six million Muslims and describe the wearing of the garment as a marginal phenomenon affecting few women.
To the credit of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, he reassures France's estimated six million Muslims, saying that freedom to practice religion was enshrined in the constitution.
"Our country, which has known not only wars of religion but also fratricidal battles due to state anti-clericalism, cannot let French Muslim citizens be stigmatized," he said at Notre Dame de Lorette cemetery in northern France yesterday.
This is the same Sarkozy who had set the tone for the debate in June last year when he declared the burqa was "not welcome" in France and described it as a symbol of women's "subservience" that cannot be tolerated in a country that considers itself a human rights leader.
According to French statistics, despite a large Muslim presence, the sight of fully-veiled women is not common in France. Only 1,900 women wear the burqa, according to the interior ministry. Half of them live in the Paris region and 90 percent are under 40.
It is not known to many but France is home to Europe's biggest Muslim minority,
It will be recalled that three months ago Swiss voters had approved a ban on minarets.
French support for a law banning the full veil is strong: a poll last week showed 57 percent are in favor.
It will be recalled that in 2004, France passed a law banning headscarves and any other "conspicuous" religious symbols in state schools after a long-running debate on how far it was willing to go to accommodate Islam in its strictly secular society.
It was also reported that Denmark, the Netherlands and Austria were studying measures to ban the full veil.
See:
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20100127-249719/French-parliament-report-calls-for-burqa-ban
