Is France waking up to Muslim encroachment?

On June 22, 2009, France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy launched an attack on a small but growing number of fundamentalist women in a “state of the nation” speech that was the first by a French President to both houses of parliament since 1873. It it, Sarkozy called the practice of French Muslim women in France who wear the burka called their full-body dress a “debasement of women”.

“In our country we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity. The burka is not a religious sign. It is a sign of subservience, a sign of debasement. It will not be welcome on the territory of the French Republic.” – French President Sarkozy, from speech given to French parliament, Versailles.

Mr Sarkozy’ statements reflect a a strong consensus that has emerged against women in France’s five million-strong Muslim community who wear the full or nearly-full cover of their bodies and faces. The latest French controversy over Muslim dress, which follows the 2004 ban on head-cover in state schools, began this month when 60 MPs from both sides of the house demanded action against the burka and the niqab.

“A debate has to take place and all views must be expressed. What better place than parliament for this? I tell you we must not be ashamed of our values, we must not be afraid of defending them.” — President Sarkozy.

While many on the Left disapprove of what is seen as a small rise in women adopting fundamentalist dress, speculated to number several thousand, they are also unhappy with what they see as Mr Sarkozy’s enthusiasm for action. They fear it would further stigmatize the large immigrant population already excluded from much of mainstream life.

Muslim leaders reacted cautiously to Mr Sarkozy’s words on the niqab and burka. Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Great Mosque of Paris, called the President’s remarks “in keeping with the republican spirit of secularism”. Moderate Muslims also saw full face-covering as a symbol of submission, said Mr Boubakeur.

Measures against face cover are supported by two of the three women Muslims in the French Cabinet but other ministers are questioning the wisdom of legislation that could be impossible to enforce.

While Obama was in Cairo in June 2009, he attacked the French headscarf rule in a speech in a speech he made there, saying that the United States did not believe that the Government should dictate people’s dress.

French Immigration Minister Eric Besson supports policy

On October 25, 2009, French Immigration Minister Eric Besson said in an interview, wearing the burka is “contrary” to French values. His statements underscore building resentment of the impingement of Islamic and Muslim values on European culture

Besson’s remarks again sparked outrage from 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,” — French Immigration Minister Eric Besson

While Besson stopped short of calling for a public ban of the garment, he called the burka “inacceptable” in France.

Besson defended the country’s decision to deport three undocumented Afghan immigrants back to their home in Kabul within the previous 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.

Dress Codes in European Countries

— In France a law was passed in 2004 banning pupils from wearing “conspicuous” religious symbols at state schools, a move widely interpreted as aimed at the Muslim headscarf

— In Turkey where 99 per cent of the population is Muslim, all forms of Muslim headscarf have been banned in universities for decades under the secular government. In June 2008 the country’s Consitutional Court overruled government attempts to lift the ban, prompting protests

— In Britain guidelines say that the full Islamic veil should not be worn in courts, but the final decision is up to judges. Schools may forge their own dress codes and in 2006, courts upheld the suspension of Aishah Azmi, a Muslim teaching assistant who refused to remove her veil in class

— German states have the option of choosing to ban teachers and other government employees from wearing Muslim headscarves; four have done so

—The Italian parliament in July 2005 approved anti-terrorist laws that make hiding one’s features from the public — including through wearing the burla — an offence

— Tunisia, a Muslim country, has banned Islamic headscarves in public places since 1981. In 2006 authorities began a campaign against the headscarves and began strictly enforcing the ban

— The Dutch Government said in 2007 that it was drawing up legislation to ban burkas, but it was defeated in elections in November and the new centrist coalition said it had no plans to implement a ban

Brussels, The Capital of EurAbia

Politicians in Europe are generally growing worried as its Muslim population swells amid little integration. Old Europe’s population is dwindling even as immigration and high birth rates among Muslim groups are swelling in cities all over the continent.

“It’s a double-danger; both rampant street-crime and anti-Western sentiment. Some Belgians claim Muslim enclaves are forming in Brussels, who charge its government is bending over backwards to appease the Islamic community.”

Family picture. Why bother?

In Belgium, Filip Dewinter, is a leader of the far-right separatist party Vlaams Belang. He predicts there will eventually be a kind of civil war when the longtime residents of Brussels — the nation’s capital and administrative seat of the European Union — realize their city is about to be taken over by Muslim immigrants.

There are no official statistics on how many Muslims live in Brussels, but it is believed they make up about 25 percent of the city’s 1 million urban residents.

Dewinter, who opposes immigration and has called Islamophobia a “duty,” claims three of the 19 sections of Brussels, each with its own mayor, now have Muslim majorities.

“In those neighborhoods it’s not our government that’s in power,” he said, “but the Muslim authorities — the mosques, the imams — who are in charge.” — Filip Dewinter

~ by Ben on October 26, 2009.