France moves to banning full Muslim veil

Faiza Silmi, a 32-year-old Moroccan , is seen during an interview with the Associated Press in Le Mesnil-Saint-Denis, … – The man she married is French, her four children were born in France and she speaks French with only a trace of her native Arabic tongue. Faiza Silmi contends her clothes — a head-to-toe robe and filmy tissue covering her face — are the reason France has denied her citizenship in her adopted land.

The 32-year-old Moroccan may soon be facing an even fiercer blow. A top French lawmaker submitted a draft law this week that would ban such Islamic dress anywhere in public, a measure that would set a European precedent and trap thousands of women between their religious convictions and the law of the land.

"They say I'm too attached to my religion," Silmi told The Associated Press at an empty restaurant near her home southwest of Paris, her large eyes peering from a slit in her veil. "Lots of Christians live in Morocco and we don't make them wear scarves."

Unlike Muslim headscarves, full-body, face-covering robes are a rare sight in the streets of France, home to an estimated 5 million Muslims, the largest such population in western Europe. France's main Muslim leaders have declared that Islam does not require women to cover their faces with niqabs or burqas.

In a country whose national emblem is Marianne, a bare-chested woman, there is deepening concern over the all-encompassing garb, often black or brown and worn with gloves, attire typical in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. Here, it is widely viewed as a gateway to radical Islam, an attack on gender equality and other French values, and a gnawing away at the nation's secular foundation.

President Nicolas Sarkozy opened the door to a possible ban in June, telling a parliament session in Versailles that such dress "is not welcome" in France. A parliamentary panel set to work in July on a six-month mission gathering information on the garments.

On Tuesday, the head of Sarkozy's conservative UMP party in parliament's lower house, Jean-Francois Cope, jumped the gun before the panel's report was finished, and filed draft legislation on a ban. "No one may, in spaces open to the public and on public streets, wear a garment or an accessory that has the effect of hiding the face," the draft text reads.

The document cites public security concerns, thus includes all face-covering clothes, in a bid to head off challenges from those who might claim such a law would violate constitutional rules on individual rights — a major concern along with how such a law would be enforced. It foresees fines for those who break the law.

 

Talking about a clash of civilizations. The French are going to eventually lose their country to the third world muslims as most of Europe anyway just as the americans are going to lose their country to the mexicans someday. Patrick J. Buchanan said as much in his "The Death of the West". The French will be a minority within their own country.

 

The French don't play when it come to certain religions ruling the French culture. The Catholics tried but failed so would the Islamists.

 

It is good and bad:
Good for women who are forced to it and indoctrinated.
But what about the women that fully embrace it on their own, the do exist.
Who am I to judge?

I had a friend in grad school who was from Pakistan, she was always dressed in a shalwar and kameez (pardon the spelling) always completely covering her hair - but her family did not and did not condone it although they were muslims, just more "modern" that she was.
They were acctually on her case as they thought it would be so much harder for her to fit in and they acctually thought it would be harder to get her married with a "good" American-Pakistani as they wanted for her.

She got hell from her family for her belief of covering her hair, I know its probably not that common, but I admired her for her courage to defy her family and her environment to keep her hair covered... and I believe in her right to do so.

But how do you protect the women that dont want to and are forced to do so and at the same time protect womens self educated decision to do so? Tricky tricky.

 

Why ban an item of clothing? Especially one that is so important to many Muslims- it's just a blatant attack of Muslims living in France IMO

 

Danny Glover Being Stupid Again

Danny Glover said that global warming is responsible for the earthquake in Haiti. How stupid is this man? He needs to leave the country and go live with Chavez.

 

It has nothing to do with this topic that we're talking about. We're talking about France is moving forward to banning Muslim's veil, so why is it related to this? Although, I'm very surprised by his comment.

 

My apology. I thought I was creating a new thread and somehow I ended up posting under this one. Webmaster, please delete the previous posts on stupid Danny Glover.

 

A lot of Muslims are attacking the western way of life, why not return the favor? The French aren't PC like Americans. Good for them.

 

that's one way to look at it

you took a left at Albuquerque when you should have taken a right

 

When that Nigerian fool tried to blow shit up over my home town, all bets were off far as I'm concerned. If Muslims don't want to get harassed they better get their people to chill. It's like in "Full Metal Jacket" when Pyle fucked up the whole platoon got punished.

 

if the guy succeeded, I think things would have been worse

 

Luckily he was a punk.

 

i'm still wondering why 'Joe the Plumber' had to make a move on the guy. Where were the vaunted federal marshals, that are supposed to be on flights?

 

Not to mention all the post-9/11 security lists and upgrades that were supposed to have been in place, esp. for an Amsterdam-Detroit (Ecstacy/weed drug route) flight.

 

Our French province, Quebec, had a declaration of their own which was given to new immigrants informing them of how "we live here". It is somewhat related to the OP. The article below is from the BBC. It may have been a backlash against the Islamic movement to institute Sharia Law in Canada by fundamentalists.
No stoning, Canada migrants told
Don't stone women to death, burn them or circumcise them, immigrants wishing to live in the town of Herouxville in Quebec, Canada, have been told.
The rules come in a new town council declaration on culture that Muslims have branded shocking and insulting.

Quebec is in the midst of a huge debate on integrating immigrant cultures.

Herouxville, which has one immigrant family in its population of about 1,300, is 160km (100 miles) north-east of Montreal.

Its council published the new rules on the town's website.

“ I was shocked and insulted to see these kinds of false stereotypes and ignorance about Islam and our religion ”
Salam Elmenyawi,
Muslim Council of Montreal

"We wish to inform these new arrivals that the way of life which they abandoned when they left their countries of origin cannot be recreated here," the declaration reads.

"We consider it completely outside norms to... kill women by stoning them in public, burning them alive, burning them with acid, circumcising them etc."

It points out that women are allowed to drive, vote, dance and own their own homes.

The rules ban Sikh children from carrying ceremonial daggers to school, even though the Supreme Court has ruled they can.

The man behind the declaration, councillor Andre Drouin, told the National Post newspaper the rules were not racist.

"We invite people from all nationalities, all languages, all sexual orientations, whatever, to come live with us, but we want them to know ahead of time how we live," he said.

Mr Drouin said there had been a number of recent incidents of culture clashes that meant the new rules were needed.

In one a Toronto judge ordered a Christmas tree removed from a court so as not to offend non-Christians. In another a Montreal gym installed frosted windows after a Hasidic synagogue complained the sight of adults exercising was offensive.

However, the president of the Muslim Council of Montreal, Salam Elmenyawi, condemned the council, saying it had set back race relations decades.

He told Reuters news agency: "I was shocked and insulted to see these kinds of false stereotypes and ignorance about Islam and our religion."

 

France has strict laws regarding religious emblems and the seperation of State from a church.
French public schools do not allow religious emblems. This is a law which has existed for a long time.
"We wish to inform these new arrivals that the way of life which they abandoned when they left their countries of origin cannot be recreated here," I think the latter statement sums it up.

 

If you're in a muslim country you would have to cover your head and follow their rules...they should do the same when they are in non-mulism countries.

They can dish it out but they can't take it.

 

A lot of Americans are saying they're tired of accomodating everyone's language, culture, etc.....these days the word on the street is assimilate or GTFO.

 

Glover has been in liberal hollywood so long he is out of touch with reality. I remember praising Chavez and Castro as if racism does not exist in Cuba.
Hollywood Liberals and other Liberals are some two faced when it comes to blacks.