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The French government has refused to grant citizenship to a foreign national on the grounds that he forced his wife to wear the full Islamic veil. The man, whose current nationality was not given, needed citizenship to settle in the country with his French wife. But Immigration Minister Eric Besson said this was being refused because he was depriving his wife of the liberty to come and go with her face uncovered. Last week, a parliamentary committee proposed a partial ban on full veils.

NICE, France (Jan. 26) -- French lawmakers said Tuesday they want to ban Muslim women from veiling their faces in public facilities, a plan applauded by some French Muslim women but criticized by Muslim leaders, who said it could provoke Islamic extremists in France and abroad. A parliamentary panel convened six months ago by French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday issued a much-anticipated, 200-page report recommending that women be banned from wearing the full-face veil in public office buildings, schools, hospitals and while using mass transit. The full-face veil is viewed by many in France as a sign of extremism...

Paris - France moves one step closer to barring Muslim women from wearing the full Islamic veil when a much-awaited report is released this week, laying the groundwork for a ban on the burqa. After six months of hearings surrounded by fierce public debate, a commission set up by parliament will publish its findings on Tuesday on outlawing the full-face veil. Home to Europe's biggest Muslim minority, estimated at about six million, France is heading into unchartered territory. No European country has adopted sweeping national legislation on restricting the full veil.

A Paris swimming pool has refused entry to a young Muslim woman wearing a "burqini," a swimsuit that covers most of the body, officials said Wednesday. The pool ban came as French lawmakers conduct hearings on whether to ban the burqa after President Nicolas Sarkozy said the head-to-toe veil was "not welcome" in secular France. Officials in the Paris suburb of Emerainville said they let the woman swim in the pool in July wearing the "burqini," designed for Muslim women who want to swim without revealing their bodies. But when she returned in August they decided to apply hygiene rules...

A swimming pool in Paris has refused entry to a young Muslim woman wearing a 'burqini' - a swimsuit that covers most of the body. The ban came as French lawmakers consider whether to stop burqas - head-to-toe veils - being worn in the country. The debate follows President Nicolas Sarkozy saying the veils were "not welcome" in secular France. Officials in the Paris suburb of Emerainville had initially let the woman swim in the pool while wearing a burqini, in July. But, when she returned in August, they decided to enforce hygiene rules and told her she could not...

BAGNOLET, France – Restive youths in a Paris suburb torched a tourist bus and nearly a half-dozen cars and hurled objects at police early Tuesday, a night after fullblown unrest prompted by the death of a teen fleeing police. The local prefecture, the administrative center for the region, said the situation was under control despite the scattered torchings. An Associated Press Television News crew saw at least five torched cars and a burned-out tourist bus near a housing project. Groups of youths set street fires, sometimes fueling them with garbage cans or a mattress in one case and hurled stones...

About 40 rioters in a Paris suburb hurled Molotov cocktails at police and firefighters and torched cars in a rampage prompted by the death of a teen fleeing police. The interior minister called Monday for calm after the overnight violence. One person fired at police with a handgun during the rioting in a housing project in Bagnolet on the eastern edge of Paris, Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said in a statement. No injuries were reported. The latest eruption of tensions in France's suburbs broke out after an 18-year-old riding his motorcycle through the project tried to flee a document check...

Only 367 women in France wear Islamic veils that cover their faces and bodies, a newspaper reported on Wednesday, undermining the position of politicians who are pushing for a ban on the garments. A panel of legislators is studying the issue of whether the number of women wearing such veils is on the rise and why. The panel is expected to say in coming months whether it backs a ban on the veils in public places, as advocated by some politicians. President Nicolas Sarkozy has stopped short of backing a ban, but has said the veils were "not welcome" in...

Via the Brussels Journal, news that the French authorities are trying to make the media downplay the latest round of rioting: Only the figures for the night of July 13-14 were published: “Some 500 vehicles” were burned, the worst ever recorded for the eve of the national holiday. Despite repeated requests to the Interior Ministry, and the DGPN [similar to the FBI], no figures were forthcoming for the night of July 14-15. These orders have been strictly applied. The different prefectures contacted by Le Monde refused to respond, citing “ministerial instructions.” Regional news media reported the same problem. The daily...

French youths set 317 cars on fire and wounded 13 police officers overnight during a series of riots on the eve of the Bastille Day holiday, police say. Paris police said 240 people had been arrested, almost double the number held after unrest on the same day last year. The injured officers are suffering from hearing difficulties caused by home-made explosives blowing up beside them. Last week, the death of a young man in police custody caused three nights of riots in the southern town of Firminy. Police said Mohamed Benmouna, a 21-year-old of Algerian origin, had died after trying...

A 28-year-old African who styled himself as a barbarian was sentenced to life in prison last night for kidnapping and torturing to death a Jewish man in a case that exposed anti-Semitism in France’s immigrant suburbs. Youssouf Fofana, from the Ivory Coast, was the ring-leader of a gang of 27 youths who abducted Iman Halimi, 23, in 2006. The gang, from a housing estate in Bagneux, west of Paris, called themselves the “gang of barbarians”. Fofana Fofana, who describes himself as a hardline “Salafist” Islamist, fled to Ivory Coast after the killing. He was arrested there and extradited to France....

Youssouf Fofana, leader of a kidnap gang who called themselves "The Barbarians", has been sentenced to life in prison for an anti-Semitic murder of shocking brutality. The court ruled he must serve a minimum of 22 yerars before he can be considered for parole. Of 26 other defendants in the case, two were acquitted and the rest received sentences of between six months and 18 years jail. Fofana, 28, masterminded the kidnap, torture and murder of Jewish shop clerk Ilan Halimi in 2006. Halimi went missing on January 20, 2006 while on a date with a girl he had met...

The French Republic is not blessed or burdened with a First Amendment. So when President Nicolas Sarkozy recently suggested that France ban the wearing of the burqa in all public places, the Chamber of Deputies took it up. Unlike the headscarf, which covers a woman's hair but leaves her face visible, the burqa is a head-to-toe covering that makes walking draperies of women. Some, like the chador worn in Afghanistan, feature a mesh covering for the face. The Saudi version usually sports a slit for the eyes. Here's an online catalogue's description of one: "Khimar and niqab set made of...

Al Qaeda terrorists have vowed to 'wreak dreadful revenge' on France over its plans to ban the burkha. The chilling warning comes after President Nicolas Sarkozy said the Islamic garment which covers the head and body 'debases women' and is not welcome in his country. French MPs have set up a commission to decide if it should be made illegal for women to hide their faces in public. Now leaders of Al Qaeda's North African network have called on French Muslims to react 'with the utmost hostility'. One Islamic extremist website carried the message: 'We will seek dreadful revenge on...

French president Nicolas Sarkozy's rejection of the burka and the face veil are "in keeping with the republican spirit of secularism," according to the rector of the Grand Mosque in Paris, Dalil Boubakeur, quoted by media. Boubakeur said he supported a proposal by French MPs for a panel of deputies to look at the wearing of the burka "on the condition that they listen to what the experts on Islam have to say". The burka marked "a return towards Islam's past, in line with the preaching and vision of fundamentalists" added Boubakeur (photo)....

The French National Assembly announced Tuesday the creation of an inquiry into whether women in France should be allowed to wear the burka, one day after President Nicolas Sarkozy controversially told lawmakers that the traditional Muslim garment was "not welcome" in France.A cross-party panel of 32 lawmakers will investigate whether the traditional Muslim garment poses a threat to the secular nature of the French constitution. They are due to report back with their recommendations in six months.On Monday Sarkozy declared in a keynote parliamentary address that the burka, which covers women from head to toe, is "not welcome" in France....

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...

Sarkozy says burqas have no place in France Mon Jun 22, 2009 10:18am EDT PARIS (Reuters) - President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Monday that burqas, garments that cover women from head to toe and hide their faces, had no place in France as they were a sign of the subjugation of women. During a solemn speech to parliament on a wide range of issues, Sarkozy backed an initiative launched by legislators last week who expressed concern over an increase in the use of burqas in France. "The issue of the burqa is not a religious issue, it is a question...

PARIS – President Nicolas Sarkozy lashed out Monday at the practice of wearing the Muslim burqa, insisting the full-body religious gown is a sign of the "debasement" of women and that it won't be welcome in France. The French leader expressed support for a recent call by dozens of legislators to create a parliamentary commission to study a small but growing trend of wearing the full-body garment in France. In the first presidential address in 136 years to a joint session of France's two houses of parliament, Sarkozy laid out his support for a ban even before the panel has...

Thousands in France rally to back Iran exile group By AUDREY HOROWITZ Associated Press Writer Posted: 06/20/2009 05:50:11 PM PDT VILLEPINTE, France—Thousands of people gathered north of Paris on Saturday to support Iranian opposition protesters and an Iranian exile group pushing to be rid of a terrorist label. Crowds spilled out of buses and filled the fairground in Villepinte under drizzly skies. Organizers said 1,000 buses were hired to bring protesters from around France and Europe, including legislators from several countries. The rally was organized by the National Council of Resistance of Iran. Organizers said 90,000 people turned out. Police...