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Ban on Burqa Debated In France, Britain

By Howard M. Friedman

In France, a Parliamentary commission is scheduled to publish its recommendations tomorrow on whether the Muslim women should be banned from wearing the full-face veil in public places. According to Islam Online yesterday, France's Conference of French Imams supports a ban, saying that a majority of Muslim scholars agree that women are not required to cover their full face. They say that the issue is being used to "tarnish" the image of Muslims in France and elsewhere in the West. However other Muslim leaders in France oppose any ban. The leader of the French Council for the Muslim Religion says that a ban would infringe Muslim's religious freedom. The president of the French Union of Islamic Organizations says he believes that a ban would encourage Islamophobia, though he supports requiring women to identify themselves in public transportation when necessary for security purposes.

Meanwhile, in yesterday's London Times, Dominic Lawson published a powerful op-ed opposing suggestions by the UK Independence Party that the burqa be banned in Britain. He writes that the view of Muslims being portrayed by those who support a ban is reminiscent of these lines from Adolph Hitler in Mein Kampf: "As I was once strolling through the inner city, I suddenly happened upon an apparition in a long caftan with black hair locks. Is this a Jew? was my first thought ... but the longer I stared ... the more my first question was transformed into a new conception: is this a German?"

Full post as published by Religion Clause on January 25, 2010 (boomark / email).