Friday, April 16, 2010

Europe struggles with Muslim dress code

From the Associated Press:

ANTWERP, Belgium – Chances of seeing a burqa in Belgium are only a little better than spotting a liquor shop in Saudi Arabia. Yet Belgium soon may be the first European nation to outlaw the burqa and other Islamic garb that completely hides a woman's body and face.

Let's just stop right there. That very first line is an absolute lie. There are NO liquor stores in Saudi Arabia, and yet, 6% of Belgium's population is Muslim. If I am not mistaken, that means Belgium has the second-highest Muslim population of any country in Europe (behind France, though Sweden may have a larger Muslim population than Belgium).

Fully, 1/4 of the population of Brussels is Muslim.

Now that I have given you those stats, do you really believe "chances of seeing a burqa in Belgium are only a little better than spotting a liquor shop in Saudi Arabia"?

That's what we here in the United States call BULLSHIT!

Back to the story.

Neighboring France and the Netherlands may also outlaw attire that is viewed by many in western European societies as demeaning to women. It also is considered a gateway to radical Islam, a fear that is stoking rightwing sentiment across the continent.

"There is all-party public support for this," says Leen Dierick, a conservative member of the Belgian parliament's Interior Affairs committee that unanimously backed the proposed ban March 31. The initiative is expected become law in July and would apply to all public places, including streets.

Anxieties that visible signs of Islam erode national identity are combining with complaints that immigrants are stealing jobs amid the worst economic slump in decades to deepen a sense of unease in many European countries, small and large alike, over the role of Muslims in society.

Threats against cartoonists and artists over depictions of the prophet Muhammad have also raised fears that Islam is not compatible with Western values of freedom of speech.

Swiss voters recently voted to ban the construction of new minarets. In recent years, both mosque and minaret construction projects in many European countries, including Sweden, France, Italy, Austria, Greece, Germany and Slovenia have generated protests, some of them violent.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy favors a burqa ban, saying the veils compromise women's dignity. Unlike the Belgians or the Dutch — who see a clear and straightforward public security issue — the French are struggling with the constitutionality of outlawing a religious dress code.

Until now, it has been up to city governments in Belgium to crack down on burqa-style outfits. "Enforcement by local governments has been patchy," says Dierick. "The point is public security, the need to show one's face in public. Not religious freedom."

The proposed Belgian ban partly underscores how populist politicians across Europe are making a big imprint on attitudes and policies toward immigrants and minorities, especially Muslims.

(Pastorius comment: Once again, BULLSHIT!)

Belgian lawmaker Filip Dewinter says mainstream politicians back a ban on burqa-type attire for fear of losing more ground to his far-right Flemish Interest party — a fringe factor 15 years but who today hold 17 of the 150 parliamentary seats.

"We were the first to propose a burqa ban," says Dewinter. "Now the parliament votes for a ban (drafted by a) traditional government party. Whatever! It's the outcome that counts."

Umar Mirza, a 22-year-old student and editor of the Dutch Muslim Web site "We're Staying Here" says sentiment toward Muslims and immigrants began to harden in the Netherlands 10 years ago.

(Pastorius comment: Gee, I wonder why?)

"People my age have not known anything else," he says, adding the prevailing view of Muslims "has gotten much harder and sharper and less targeted at solutions."

In the Netherlands, polls indicate that Geert Wilders' anti-Islam Freedom Party could nearly triple its presence in parliament and win 25 or so seats in June elections, up from nine today.

Wilders and like-minded supporters of the far-right hold that Muslims threaten European values by wearing head scarves and more conservative dress that fully covers body and head, such as the burqa, the chador and the niqab.

They say that liberal Europe can no longer afford to tolerate the illiberalism of newcomers.

"Islam is more of an ideology than a religion," Wilders is fond of saying. "I do not believe in a European Islam. The Islamization of the Netherlands and Western Europe will make us lose the freedoms we have today."

Numbers put growing fears of Europe becoming "Eurabia" into perspective.

Although their ranks are growing, Muslims make up only small minorities in Western Europe. France has the largest Muslim population of an estimated 5 million, or 7.5 percent of the population (PASTORIUS COMMENT - THIS IS WRONG. FRANCE'S MUSLIM POPULATION IS 10% AT THIS POINT), followed by the Netherlands with 6 percent, Germany with 5 percent, Austria with 4.2 percent, Belgium with 3 percent and Britain with 2.7 percent, according to a 2009 study of the Pew Research Center in Washington.

There is broad support in the Dutch parliament to ban face-obscuring clothing except if required by law for safety or health reasons. Talk of a ban is on hold, for now. Fewer than 500 women wear such outfits in the Netherlands, out of a population of 16.5 million.

(Pastorius comment: Oh, really. How do they know? Did they conduct a poll? This is ridiculous. I see burqas and hijab all the freaking time, and our Muslim population here in Souther California is nowhere near 6-10%. This article is full of lies.)

"Banning the burqa in Belgium is easy. The vast majority of Muslim women here don't wear one," says Maryam H'madoun, an activist in Antwerp for Muslim women's right to wear head scarves in public places.

Last year, the city of Brussels fined only 29 women — down from 33 in 2008 — for wearing a burqa-type dress, leading critics to say the regulations are an empty populist gesture. Local rules ban the burqa, but the new law would outlaw it on a national level.

In January, Denmark's center-right government called the burqa and the niqab out of step with Danish values. It held off on a ban after finding that only two or three women in Denmark (pop. 5.5 million) wear burqas and perhaps 200 wearing niqabs.

In France (pop. 65 million), the government estimates 1,900 women cover their faces with "niqabs," a scarf that exposes only the eyes, or "sitars," a filmy veiled cloth thrown over the head to cover the entire face.

France banned Muslim head scarves — as well as Jewish skullcaps and Christian crosses — from schools in 2004. President Nicolas Sarkozy says the burqa "is not welcome" in France, but the Council of State, France's highest administrative body, has served notice that an outright ban may be unconstitutional.

Politicians in Germany, Spain and Italy have toyed with banning Islamic wear, but so far to no effect.

Muslims say their Islamic dress expresses their freedom of religion.

The headscarves debate "shows we still aren't able to accept the fact that the headscarves are part of our society," says Mirza, the editor of the "We're Staying Here" Web site.

"In the UK, they even made special police uniforms for women with headscarves. That shows willingness from the government and improves participation in society of these groups."

Isabelle Praile, vice president of the Belgian Muslims Executive says while a burqa ban targets very few women "it speaks to a fear of the other who is Muslim. This is Islamophobia."

To Muslims in Europe, she said, "the economy, the cost of living and decent housing" are more pressing issues that worrying about a burqa ban.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Europe struggle with Muslim dress code;
Associated Press struggle with truth.

Damien said...

extropolitca

I agree, Europe is clearly struggling with more than just a "Muslim dress code." The thing is, even this somewhat politically correct article from the AP makes that clear.

cjk said...

I liken the burka to a swastika. It is a form of staking out ones territory or presence; a type of threat to me.
The ideology that it represents is just as evil in every single way and more so than Nazism.
One may protest that these women don't really understand or espouse true Mohammedanism, but then again a lot of Nazis never envisioned Auschwitz either.

I will stand by my comparison of Mohammedanism to Nazism.

cjk said...

What does AP stand for anyway, Akbar press?

Damien said...

Cjk,

AP actually stands for Associated Press.

cjk said...

Pastorius: Good point, and the fact that they chain up their women in our open society, right before our eyes, makes them even worse as an intimidating symbol than a swastika.

Pastorius said...

Yeah, you're right. That does make it even worse than a swastika.

I hadn't thought of it that way.

Mohamed Ameen said...

Even in the liberal West, it is an offence for women to go half naked revealing their whole breasts at public places, in educational institutes, at the churches and other places of worship? It is against public decency. There are restrictions on dress even in Europe, is my contention. So it is in Muslim countries. The difference is only in degree.

Absolute freedom is non-existent in any culture. Being social animals, men and women have animal magnetism and sex appeal. One can never deny the fact that when a young man looking at a woman revealing a major part of her firm, round, shapely and bulging breasts gets sexually excited and would have train of quite often lewd thoughts in his mind.

And in Islam we say, let men and women dress modestly not revealing more than what is necessary. This helps both to restrict their erotica, their sex urge. The following is a verse from the Muslim Holy Book called the QURAN, Quote,

“Tell believing men to lower their look and tell believing women to lower their gaze so that they will guard their modesty” this is a shariah law. Is it too much for Europeans to accept this?

We are not asking for the moon. As the French have fundamental rights, so do others? As it is the fundamental right of a European non-Muslim woman to reveal as much of her beauty as she likes, a Muslim woman has equal fundamental right to cover as much as she wants to cover.

Why does it bother some? It is simple prejudice and bias and hatred of other people’s culture. Islam is the fastest growing religion in Europe as G.B.Shaw said Islam may be acceptable to the Europe of tomorrow as it is beginning to be acceptable to the Europe of today.

A big issue is in the world is maintaining family values.75% of the marriages in the US end in divorces. How to make families live more happily and successfully. Please read the book, written by a non-Muslim scholar : Karen Armstrong: Title: Muhammad : A Western Approach to islam

Pastorius said...

You think the burqa is the solution?

If so, please leave and go live in a Muslim country.