Should women living in Europe have to endure this worldview?

France could bar Muslim women from wearing full veils in public, a government minister said yesterday as parliament took action over concerns about an increase in women who are wearing the niqab and burka in big cities.

The latest controversy over dress habits among France’s six million Muslims follows public differences this month between Presidents Obama and Sarkozy over the merits of legislating on religious clothing.

A group of 58 MPs from the Left and Right called on Wednesday for parliament to react to the phenomenon of women who are adopting what they called oppressive head-to-toe Islamic dress that “breaches individual freedoms”. Luc Chatel, the Industry Minister and government spokesman, supported the MPs. “If it were determined that wearing the burka is a submissive act, and that it is contrary to republican principles, naturally parliament would have to draw the necessary conclusions,” he said.

The new debate over Muslim dress is reviving passions that surrounded France’s 2004 law banning religious headcover in state schools. André Gerin, a Communist MP, led the motion for an inquiry, calling the burka and niqab “a moving prison” for women.

Women’s groups, including some Muslim-led ones, back new measures against the practices of a growing but still small minority of radical Muslims.

...and not just Burkas - Rotterdam is beginning to resemble Istanbul

Fadela Amara, a rights campaigner of Algerian background, who is the Housing Minister, said that she was alarmed by the number of women “who are being put in this kind of tomb”. She added: “We must do everything to stop burkas from spreading.”

Muslim leaders have mixed views about new legislation. Dalil Boubakeur, the rector of the Paris Mosque, supported an inquiry, saying that face covering for women was a fundamentalist practice originating in Afghanistan that was not prescribed by Islam. The national Muslim Council, which is less tied to the Establishment, accused lawmakers of wasting time on a fringe phenomenon.

“To raise the subject like this . . . is a way of stigmatising Islam,” said Mohammed Moussaoui, the head of the council. There are no precise figures, but experts estimate that several thousand women, mainly born in France, have taken to full costumes with face covering.

In 2004, when he was Interior Minister, Mr Sarkozy was not enthusiastic about the school headscarf ban and he remains wary of stigmatising Muslims. However, he defended the French approach when the US President visited two weeks ago. He is unlikely to be sympathetic to further prohibitions.

Mr Obama had taken a swipe at French and other European laws in a speech in Cairo in which he said that the United States prized freedom of religion and “we are not going to tell people what to wear”.

Mr Sarkozy told Mr Obama in Normandy on June 6 that French principles of equality meant that people should not display religious affiliation in state institutions.

He added: “It is not a problem that young girls may choose to wear a veil or a headscarf as long as they have actually chosen to do so, as opposed to this being imposed upon them, be it by their families or by their environment.”

There are an estimated 15 million Muslims in Europe¹, with on average a birth rate of three times the rest of the population² (in some countries and localised areas this is much higher). To help put this into some kind of perspective, this number (individually not cumulatively), exceeds the populations of Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Portugal, Austria, Slovenia, Albania, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Switzerland and Greece.

Anyone with even a basic grasp of mathematics will be able to see how this might turn out if left unchecked for a few more years.

These numbers grow every day, as Dhimmi politicians continue to believe that they add to the ‘richness’ and ‘diversity’ of our societies. Yet experience on the ground points to the contrary.

Where Muslims are allowed to concentrate (inevitably far from the districts inhabited by the political élites), conflict with the host community is the default position. In certain areas in England for example, unchecked Muslim immigration has completely bisected towns and cities and created virtual ‘no-go’ zones for non-Muslims. Yet we are still being fed the line that this is ‘good for us’; although naturally this is never backed up by empirical evidence. In Rotterdam, the skyline now resembles that of Istanbul, as it moves inexorably toward Muslim-majority status.

In France, the Banlieues, or ghetto suburbs, are a nightmare. Even the police are afraid to venture into these squalid, mainly North African-descended Muslim neighbourhoods, which seem to erupt into violent riots and car-burning sprees, every time the inhabitants feel in some way ‘alienated’ or ‘victimised’.

Perceptions of Islamic clothing in Western eyes, tend to range from people finding it incongruous, to it being anti-social and in some cases even offensive – especially when seen in Western settings. We have not included the views of the multi-faith, multicultural Dhimmis here of course, who adore it and no doubt think it ‘exotic’ – or worse still – buy into the Islamist line that it’s ‘liberating’.

It is not liberating in the slightest. It is a metaphor for the chattel-status Islam affords to women almost universally. In another context, it is also worn as a symbol of political defiance by younger, educated women who somehow think it’s hip and trendy. On a practical level, it makes identification difficult and masks intent – in some cases it has even been used as a disguise by male criminals, enabling them to escape serious charges.

Of course, the Muslim lobby will use their favourite technique to protest this – that of using liberal western cultural norms against us, in order to blindside us as to the lack of same in their own culture. They will ask, “where is your freedom of expression now”? “What happened to your so-called liberal values?“

And we must answer thus: “this is precisely why we are debating and considering restricting use of the the Burka”.

France is doing the right thing – let’s hope it actually materialises (pun wholly intentional). Other countries should take her cue.

¹ ² The Brookings Institution, Washington

[Main story: The Times]

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