European countries ponder banning the burqa - by Marc Leijendekker

The burqa, a garment completely covering the female body and face, is worn in some Islamic traditions. The question whether such clothing should be forbidden in public places has been the subject of debate in many European countries lately. In the continent’s major countries, a majority supports a ban, a survey by the Financial Times (FT) showed last month.

“The burqa symbolises the submission of women,” is the claim of one Austrian minister, a social democrat. No, outlawing burqas could lead women to shun the streets, warns Sweden’s prime minister, a liberal conservative. This week, a Belgian parliamentary committee has called for an all-out ban of burqas. Meanwhile, a French court has called such a restriction legally untenable.

The number of women who actually wear burqas is very small everywhere in Europe. In Denmark, an estimated 150 to 200 do so. In Belgium, fewer than 300 female Muslims cover their faces. In France, 2,000 women go about in burqas, a number dwarfed by the total French Muslim population of five to six million souls. Still, this has done little to stifle debate, most of which goes on at the domestic level. The arguments used hardly differ from within countries. The fundamental problem is the same everywhere: how to deal with a manner of dress that many people see as a way of distancing oneself from fellow citizens and society in general, regardless of the religious connotation it may carry.

Note EU-Digest: the burqa is part of Sharia law and as such should not be acceptable in the EU. It is true that the Western Enlightenment teaches tolerance, but it also teaches critical thinking and reasoning. Sharia cannot stand up under scrutiny. It is intolerant and excessive, and Aristotle in his Nicomachean Ethics teaches the West that excess is never just.

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