French parliament approves ban on face veils

[chitown]

French parliament approves ban on face veils - Yahoo! News

PARIS – France's lower house of parliament overhwelmingly approved a ban on burqa-like Islamic veils Tuesday, a move that is popular among French voters despite serious concerns from Muslim groups and human rights advocates.
There were 336 votes for the bill and just one against it at the National Assembly. Most members of the main opposition group, the Socialist Party, refused to participate in the vote — though they support a ban, they have differences with President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservatives over some aspects of it.
The ban on face-covering veils will go in September to the Senate, where it also is likely to pass. Its biggest hurdle will likely come after that, when France's constitutional watchdog scrutinizes it. Some legal scholars say there is a chance it could be deemed unconstitutional.
The main body representing French Muslims says face-covering veils are not required by Islam and not suitable in France, but it worries that the law will stigmatize Muslims in general.
France has Europe's largest Muslim population, estimated to be about 5 million of the country's 64 million people. While ordinary headscarves are common, only about 1,900 women in ]Franceare believed to wear face-covering veils. Champions of the bill say they oppress women.
With the proposed ban, the government also is seeking to insist that integration is the only path for immigrant minorities. France has had difficulty integrating generations of immigrants and their children, as witnessed by weeks of rioting by youths, many of them minorities, in troubled neighborhoods in 2005.
At the National Assembly, few dissenters have spoken out about civil liberties or fears of fanning anti-Islam sentiment.
The niqab and burqa are generally seen here as a gateway to extremism and an attack on women's rights and secularism, a central value of modern-day France.
The full veil "is the banner of a sectarian ideology" and threatens "human dignity," the head of French women's rights group Ni Putes Ni Soumises, Sihem Habchi, wrote in an essay in Tuesday's Liberation daily.
Critics say the proposed ban is a cynical ploy by conservative French President Nicolas Sarkozy's government to attract far-right voters.

[billy the kid]

it's not asking for a lot ,is it ?

[DaffyDuck]

With the proposed ban, the government also is seeking to insist that integration is the only path for immigrant minorities.

YES!

Once again, France is leading when it comes to common sense, and retaining their national identity.

Essentially - if you want to live in France, *be* French!

This applies to any other countries as well, and should be something the bitter and angry expats in Thailand should take to heart.

If you want to live in a foreign country, respect its culture and identity, and do not try to turn it into a little version of your own country. Trust me, no one comes to Thailand, and wants to see a miniature version of Australia or England -- some of us go on vacations to get away from annoying and illiterate drunks.

[Minty4Thai]

Well done France. Bravo

[Mid]

Rich Muslim vows to pay all French burka fines
Gavin Mortimer
JULY 13, 2010


Flamboyant Rachid Nekkaz pledges €1m to pay fines of French Muslim women caught wearing the full veil

On the eve of tomorrow's Bastille Day celebrations, there is more revolution in the air in France and this time the ringleader is a flamboyant Muslim businessman called Rachid Nekkaz. The 38-year-old property developer is incensed that France has moved one step closer to banning the burka, with women caught wearing the full veil in public liable to a €150 fine and anyone convicted of forcing a woman to cover up facing a fine of up to €30,000 and a year in prison.

The first stage in passing the controversial law was today approved in the National Assembly with members of the Lower House voting overwhelmingly – 335 votes for to one against – to introduce the ban. If the French senators in the Upper House ratify the proposal in September, it will become law by the spring of 2011.

Nekkaz (above), along with the majority of France's five million Muslims, is furious at what he sees as a persecution of his religion, pointing out that fewer than 2,000 French Muslims actually wear the full veil.

He has begun a campaign to fight the law and he's pledged one million euros of his own money to pay the fines of any Muslim convicted. Speaking outside the National Assembly, Nekkaz said: "One million sounds a lot, but to protect one's liberty it's not much, and I hope that others in this country who hold the constitution dear and want to protect our fundamental liberty will join me in fighting this law."

The debonair Nekkaz, a shining example of an integrated, modern French Muslim (he was born in France to Algerian parents), has set up a campaign group called 'Hands off my Constitution', and plans to raise the €1m by selling some of the properties he owns in the Parisian suburbs.
In front of the cameras he wrote a personal cheque for the seven-figure sum before describing the proposed law as 'Anti-Constitutional' and demanding that President Sarkozy shelves the idea.

That seems unlikely. Not only has Sarkozy described the full veil as degrading to women, but it's an issue that has the overwhelming support of his UMP party. Justice Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said last week that wearing the veil "amounted to being cut off from society and rejecting the very spirit of the French republic that is founded on a desire to live together''.

And the likes of Nekkaz haven't been helped in fighting the law by the muddled approach of the opposition Socialist Party. They would like to see a ban restricted to state institutions. But that notion was ridiculed by Alliot-Marie, who said it would be "legally incoherent" and impossible to enforce. "How could we convince the French people that freedom, equality and respect for the dignity of women begins in the train station but stops at the exit?''

The Socialists abstained in today's vote in the Lower House and have said they will adopt a similar stance in September's Senate vote, in which case it seems certain the law will be written into the French Constitution. But the country's police force is bracing itself for a backlash. Security was increased at the National Assembly ahead of today's vote and there are fears of street riots if the bill is passed.

thefirstpost.co.uk

[DaffyDuck]

Rich Muslim vows to pay all French burka fines

"Hello, I am a rich, flamboyant Muslim expressing myself, who wants to make sure that our woman don't have to be flamboyant, or be able to express themselves"

[Smug Farang Bore]

some of 'em should be made to keep them on.

LT, will you have to take your bucket off if you go to Paris.

[Fuzzy Bob]

Flamboyant = Gay

[bretby]

Seeing that fewer than 2000 French muslims wear the vale and then considering that probably only small numbers of them will be caught and go through the legal system and then be fined, it would seem that this flamboyant French/Algerian would be philanthropic gesticulator will not be parting with many euros.

[mellow]

I don't especially agree with some of the overly display of " how hip I am around here" , but if you have to hide your face , it's cause your a dog anyways.

[sabang]

If he pays me a million squid I'll wear a burkha.