Word: muslims
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Fierce has been the uproar surrounding the French National Assembly’s recent efforts to outlaw the wearing of the burka (a full veil that masks a woman’s face and body, worn by some Muslim women). Although France has so far only managed to pass a non-binding resolution that calls the burka contrary to French republican values, many say a full ban is not far away...
Many Americans find such a prohibition distasteful. Their first argument has been that some women, for all we know, really do want to appear so garbed in public. They feel that it’s just as tyrannical for a non-Muslim majority to force Muslim women not to wear the burka as it is for Muslim men to force Muslim women to wear...
...France has promised to push ahead with a ban on the full veil, and Belgium has become the first European nation to hold a successful vote on the subject. A concerted effort has been made to tie the debate over Islamic dress to women’s rights within Muslim society. Politicians repeatedly invoke the need to “liberate women,” while some left-wing members of parliament have gone so far as to label the burqa a “walking coffin.” That most of the women who dress in this...
Banning minarets and burqas may only be the beginning. In Italy, the Northern League is increasing its numbers in Silvio Berlusconi’s ruling coalition and came out on top in many of March’s regional elections. The party specializes in “Muslim-baiting” and has called for boats carrying illegal immigrants from North Africa to be shelled. A popular campaign poster warns that native Italians will end up on reservations like their American counterparts as a consequence of immigration. The League now has control of the Italian Interior Ministry, while Berlusconi himself...
...firmly oppose the French law, and do not believe that it can be defended as a security measure or a feminist one. It acts only to restrict the individual choices and religious expression of French citizens. We recognize the strain that Muslim immigration and integration are putting on French culture but encourage the nation to find a happy medium where the individual religious practices of Muslims are respected, even while preserving French culture. Much has been made over what it means to be truly French—but surely no particular style of dress or worship is more truly French...