ICPTR

France backs partial veil ban
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“France has backed a partial ban on the wearing of Muslim veils in public. A parliamentary inquiry recommended they be made illegal in all places of public services, including public transport. It also said residence cards and citizenship should be refused to anyone with visible signs of a “radical religious practice.” To read the whole article visit: http://news.uk.msn.com/world/articles.aspx?cp-documentid=151891504.
(AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

What politicians do not seem to acknowledge, or perhaps even fail to understand, is that the majority of women wearing the burqa in France are already French citizens. Most of them were born in France. The question then is: why is this phenomenon fast growing in France and other European countries and not in some Arab or Muslim countries, especially immigration sending countries including Turkey, Morocco, Algeria, or Tunisia? What makes people convert to this way of life and lifestyle in European societies? The burqa phenomenon as a product of failed integration policies is not a religious demarcation per se, but a form of new civil protest of les Beurres or the so called hyphenated-French.
Putting the thorny issue of “freedom of expression” aside, in lay terms, pragmatically, would the ban effectively reduce ongoing immigration-integration related tensions or fuel them? The ban does not seem to reach the heart of the problem. Rather, it may seem like a childish game of power, which instead of alleviating misunderstandings, would but relocate reactive tensions to other modern venues of protest or expression. The burqa (and by the way also the growing Talibanisation wear culture of men in France) should be looked at as a national identity crisis of those who use them. Curiously, when will beards be also banned in selected public places?