Burqua ban officially passed in senate

Oriana Robertson
8 October 2010
1:01 am

This past Tuesday, the French senate passed a pending law to ban burqua’s worn in public. The ban on the full-face veil worn by some Muslim women will be the first of its kind in Europe, with France having the largest Muslim population in Europe of about 5 million. Overwhelmingly, the ban is being backed both by the French population and by politicians. Enforcement procedures include at 150 euro fine for women who choose to wear the veil and a 30,000 euro fine for anyone who forces a woman to sport a burqua.

There has been much debate circling this new law. The non-Muslim French tend to believe that the burqua infringes on France’s secular state and promotes the oppression of women. On a higher level, although there is vast agreement with the new law, there is still fear among politicians that Muslim’s will feel targeted and discriminated against for their religious beliefs. Muslim’s alike feel that the law is a human rights violation of their religious freedom.

In other research that I have done, I have found that other European nations are considering passing similar laws. Others presume that America should join the “burqua ban” as well. I think that a weakness with this law; however, is that it does in fact limit the religious freedom of its citizens. It is unclear to me as to what the French Constitution states as far as religious freedom goes, but it does mention the separation of church and state. France has Europe’s highest population of Muslims and it is decision to ban the burqua, inhibits many religious freedoms of its citizens and limiting diversity. France is a very liberal nation; its seeking of assimilation will only lead to higher anti-Islamic feelings prevalent in the West.

http://www.pointparkglobe.com/features/burqa-ban-creates-debate-amongst-muslims-students-1.1666821

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/frances-highest-legal-authority-removes-last-obstacle-to-ban-on-burka-2101002.html