Posted on 06/22/2009 11:25:31 AM PDT by Schnucki
The Islamic burqa is ‘not welcome’ in France and should be banned, President Nicolas Sarkozy announced today.
In comments which were set to infuriate radical Muslim leaders, he said the body covering ‘is not a sign of religion, it is a sign of subservience,’ adding: ‘It will not be welcome on the territory of the French republic.’
A group of 58 MPs from the Left and Right has called on Parliament to take action against women who are adopting what they called oppressive head-to-toe Islamic dress that ‘breaches individual freedoms’.
There are more than five million Muslims in the secular French Republic, but everything has been done to prevent showing off their religion in public.
In 2004 France banned religious headcover in state schools.
André Gerin, a Communist MP, led the motion for the latest inquiry, calling the burqa and niqab ‘a moving prison’ for women.
Women’s groups, including some Muslim ones, back the new measures against the practices of a growing but still small minority of radical Muslims.
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 burqas from spreading.”
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.
But the national Muslim Council, which is less tied to the Establishment, accused lawmakers of wasting time on a fringe phenomenon.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
If only our president wouldn’t bow down and be submissive to the neck-slicers.
Well done Sarkozy!
it is a sign of subservience, our President Obama couldn’t say this.
They are also a big F-you to society.
Sign of subservience? Are you sure he wasn’t talking about that time 0bama said hello to the king of SA? I recall Sarko looking highly amused.
Honestly it’s time to bring back the Leather necks, back in the days of the Crusades the Christians would wrap their necks in leather so the muslims could not cut their heads off as easily.
Beats the heck out of a burka any day.
Sad isn’t it, that France is standing up to this stuff better than Obama? The french have out done us here. Thanks for the Hope and Change Bambi!
Yet another government dictating what people can and cannot do. I love how the French Communists are all over this. I wonder why lol
This is a really bad idea.
While I am no fan of Islam, and I definitely don’t think women should cover their faces for legitimate state requirements such as taking pictures for photo ID, etc.
I don’t think it’s the government’s business what a person chooses to wear on her heads when they’re going about their own business.
Obama must wonder where he can get one of those things.
Fewer burqa, fewer muslim women in France; fewer muslim women in France, fewer muslim babies turning France into an islamic state.
Makes sense.
There’s only one leader of the free world...and he’s not sitting in DC. I think Sarkozy ought to go ahead and stand up completely...he’s the lighthouse in the midst of the darkness.
If we really want less govt on our lives, do we really want the fed govt to tell us what or what not to wear?
I for one, do not want the govt to tell me to wrap leather around my neck...
I think it is intended more as a “shot across the bow” to slow down or stop the Muslim insistance on moving toward sharia law. It is the Muslim strategy in all western countries, and to stop the drip, drip, drip of eroding the rights of the majority, it has to start somewhere....
hh
Yeah exactly, why would anyone support this in a free society. They are free to choose what to wear, this is just heavy handed government intervention in personal affairs.
You’re probably right, he’s posturing so that when he backs off on this it will look as though he’s giving them a concession.
The Shah of Iran tried to outlaw the headscarves. As a consequence, popular support for Khomeini swelled. And then came Jimmuh to help move things along.
maybe... I think even saying it sets a bad precedent especially when you’ve got the Communists shouting about it alongside you.
Doesn’t france have better things to worry about?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.