Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Dutch government seeks to ban full-length veils

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Dutch government seeks to ban full-length veils

    THE HAGUE, Netherlands - The Dutch government announced plans Friday for legislation banning full-length veils in public places and other clothing that covers the face — putting the Netherlands at the forefront of a general European hardening toward Muslim minorities.

    The Netherlands, once considered one of Europe’s most welcoming nations for immigrants and asylum seekers, is deeply divided over moves by the government to stem the tide of new arrivals and compel immigrants to assimilate into Dutch society.

    “The Cabinet finds it undesirable that face-covering clothing — including the burqa — is worn in public places for reasons of public order, security and protection of citizens,” Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk said.

    Basing the order on security concerns apparently was intended to respond to warnings that outlawing clothing like the all-enveloping burqa, worn by some Muslim women, could violate the constitutional guarantee against religious discrimination.

    The main Dutch Muslim organization CMO has been critical of any possible ban. The idea was “an overreaction to a very marginal problem” because hardly any Dutch women wear burqas anyway, said Ayhan Tonca of the CMO. “It’s just ridiculous.”

    Parliament vote uncertain
    In the past, a majority of the Dutch parliament has said it would approve a ban on burqas, but opinion polls ahead of national elections Nov. 22 suggest a shift away from that position, and it is unclear if a majority in the new parliament would still back the government-proposed ban.

    The issue has resonance throughout Europe. Former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw recently caused a stir by saying he wants Muslim women to abandon the full-face veil — a view endorsed by Prime Minister Tony Blair. In France, the center-right’s leading presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy has increasingly been adopting some of the rhetoric of the extreme-right.

    In Holland, policies associated with the nationalist fringe in 2002 have been co-opted by the center: holding asylum-seekers in detention centers, more muscle for the police and intelligence services, and visa examinations that require would-be immigrants to watch videos of homosexuals kissing and of topless women on the beach. Everyone must learn to speak Dutch, and Muslim clerics must mind what they say in their Friday sermons for fear of deportation.

    Slaying triggered Dutch debate
    The issue was given added urgency with the 2004 slaying of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh by a Muslim fanatic and the failed attempt to expel a Somali-born critic of Islam of her Dutch citizenship.

    About 1 million Muslims live in the Netherlands, about 6 percent of the population of 16 million, but only a few hundred are believed to regularly wear a burqa.

    After France banned the wearing of head scarves in public schools, the Dutch government decided to leave that question up to individual schools. Most allow head scarves.

    The city of Utrecht has cut some welfare benefits to unemployed women who insist on wearing burqas to job interviews. The city claimed the women were using the burqa to avoid working, since they knew they would not be hired.

    © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15766750/

    It begins. :)
    "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

  • #2
    Europe Strikes Back
    Seek Save Serve Medic

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by 667medic View Post
      Europe Strikes Back

      We should expect a certain minimum standard from the immigrants. They should remember the adage 'When in Rome, act as the Romans do'. As some of them will not comply without rules, Nations will have to set, and enforce, laws. I thought they were fleeing to the advanced countries to escape the ignorance and squalour that their homelands had, to seek a new life. It seems there are those who only wish to colonise our lands and turn them into the third world. I personally am offended at the wearing of the burqa over here.
      Semper in excretum. Solum profunda variat.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by gunnut View Post
        O, those progressive Euros.

        I told ya. Soon the beat-down will begin. I think I'll buy stock in razor wire companies.

        -dale

        Comment


        • #5
          i don't see anything wrong with that, or anything that sez that this will lead to a future raise in razor-wire stock ;)

          at the same time, if the euros don't start tackling the roots of the problem- economic stagnation, poor integration for both the natives and immigrants, and education- these policies do no more than cover the symptoms of the illness.
          There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov

          Comment

          Working...
          X