EU: Danish government backs burqa ban

Denmark’s coalition parties, the Liberal (Venstre) and Liberal Alliance, both back a public ban on garments that mask the face, including the burqa and niqab.

As reported by The Local, the stance by Liberal Alliance represents a shift in the party’s official line on the issue. As for the Venstre, the senior party in the government, had waited before the announcement of an official line with opinion divided amongst its MPs.

“We in the Liberal party will support a ban on masking that will be forthcoming. It is not a religiously defined ban on masking, but the burqa and niqab will obviously be covered by it,” political spokesperson Jakob Ellemann-Jessen said according to DR.

Liberal Alliance, which was also previously against the proposal, has followed Venstre in pronouncing its support.

“Everyone agrees that the burqa is an expression of extreme oppression of women,” party leader Anders Samuelsen wrote in a Facebook post.
 
“Now there is a majority in parliament that thinks the burka/veiling should be fought… So if a ban like this is possible in practice without harming ourselves or our own values, then yes, LA will vote for it,” Samuelsen continued.

While burqas cover the face entirely with the wearer seeing through a mesh in the material, the niqabs have a slit through which the wearer’s eyes can be seen.

Read more: Danish government backs burqa ban

Islam; Banning the Burqa in Europe

List of countries which have banned the Burqa in Europe.

For complete report click here

Burqa : Women’s rights overlooked in the name of racial “tolerance” .

If there’s a hierarchy in the hallowed halls of our nation’s tertiary institutions whenever a potential clash of ideology arises, it goes something like this: Muslims and then women. In that order.

This is an environment in which even the most passionate of women’s advocates can be rendered mute by a suggestion they are engaging in anti-Islam rhetoric.

An environment in which the very same people who will argue at length about how female pop stars are coerced into wearing skimpy clothing due to the patriarchy will shy away from a frank discussion about the pressures brought to bear on other women to wear a burqa, niqab or hijab.

Analysing the archaic double-standards and obstacles faced by women across the world is all well and good until you risk offending the sensibilities of Muslim men. And let’s face it, it is only ever the men.

When was the last time you heard a Muslim woman seriously claim to be offended that anyone would dare to suggest she should sit where she wants? Or wear what she chooses? Somehow it’s always a man who steps forward to defend a woman’s “right” to be treated as a second-class citizen.

Last October freelance journalist Alison Bevege wrote an opinion piece for The Daily Telegraph in which she detailed how she was not permitted to sit in the front of the room at a public meeting in Sydney organised by Hizb ut-Tahrir.

“Like Mississippi blacks in the 1950s sent to the back of the bus for the colour of their skin, I was segregated due to my gender,” she observed.

Which is pretty much how events unfolded at the University of Western Sydney last Thursday night when men and women were asked to sit apart at an event organized by the Muslim Students’ Association.

Note EU-Digest : With all respect for anyone's religious believes, but Islam really could do with a face-lift the Christian had back in the 1500's when Martin Luther told the Catholic Pope that he was not God's representative on earth, that God lives within us and not above us, and that Women and Men are both equal in God's eyes.

Women’s rights overlooked in the name of racial “tolerance” | Herald Sun

Dutch burqa ban – maximum fine to be 380 euros

Women wearing the Islamic burqa (full body cloak) or niqab (face veil) in public will soon be subject to a maximum fine of 380 euros. The planned measure is to be discussed by the Dutch cabinet on Friday.

A ‘burqa ban’ formed part of the minority Dutch government’s program agreed with the populist Freedom Party (PVV) on whose parliamentary support the cabinet relies.

Rather than singling out burqas and niqabs, the senior partner in the coalition, the conservative VVD, is in favour of a general ban on people wearing clothes that cover the face including balaclavas and helmets with opaque visors. On the VVD website, it is argued that people can find such clothing threatening. The extent of the ban will become clear after Friday's cabinet meeting.

The Christian Democrats are the smaller party in the coalition and say: “Clothing covering the face makes it harder to indentify people, hinders communication and makes people feel less safe”.

For more: Dutch burqa ban – maximum fine to be 380 euros | Radio Netherlands Worldwide

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.

For the complete report: nrc.nl - International - European countries ponder banning the burqa

French PM says man with 'burqa' wife has no place in France

France's prime minister said Wednesday he would sign a decree refusing French nationality to a man who forced his wife to wear the full Islamic veil, arguing he "has no place in our country." The case has arisen amid a fierce national debate about what it means to be French, with the government seeking to legislate for a ban on the head-to-toe burqa on the grounds that it is incompatible with French values.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon told Europe 1 radio that he would sign the decree issued by Immigration Minister Eric Besson. "It's French law," Fillon said. "The civil code has for a very long time provided that naturalisation could be refused to someone who does not respect the values of the (French) republic.

"This case is about a religious radical: he imposes the burqa, he imposes the separation of men and women in his own home, and he refuses to shake the hands of women. If this man does not want to change his attitude, he has no place in our country. In any case, he does not deserve French nationality."

For more: AFP: PM says man with 'burqa' wife has no place in France

The veil holds Muslim women back - by Shaukat Malik

Gamal al Banna, a brother of the founder of Egypt’s Ikhwan al Muslimun -- the Muslim Brotherhood -- says “the veil is not an Islamic tradition, but a pre-Islamic one, when Arab women covered their heads and left the upper parts of their chest uncovered.” He thinks the relevant Quranic verse commands women to cover their chests, not necessarily their heads.

Unfortantely, the Arab world has gone where the Saudi conservatives wanted it to go. Nasserism in Egypt was followed by veiled female students at Al Azhar University in Cairo demanding the imposition of Shariah, and soon there were youths belonging to Gamaa Islamiyya willing to thrash women who refused to veil themselves in public. When the Arabs came to Afghanistan in 1996 to fight for the Taliban, the call for “true Islam” was already a slogan that was heard loud and clear in Pakistan. Ironically, “true Islam” usually applies to women and had begun spreading with General Zia’s Hudood Ordinance, ordaining that women anchors and announcers on PTV cover their heads. But the ulema on the right of Zia wanted more. In fact they wanted nothing short of a “shuttlecock”, a brutally punitive covering that renders women half blind.

The hijab or burqa are not required by Islam. The only requirement is to dress modestly. Today in Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Middle East, Iran, Somalia, Afghanistan, Turkey and throughout the world, most Muslim women have no choice but to wear the hijab or burqa with only their eyes showing due to cultural and Man-made traditions. The object of the hijab and burqa is essentially to control women. This idea may have worked in medieval times. However, in today’s world, where contribution by both sexes is essential, it ends up violating a woman’s rights.

For the complete report : The veil holds Muslim women back - A blog for news and discussion on matters of faith - baltimoresun.com