NETHERLANDS: Dutch burqa ban fuels European debate on face veils

The leader of the opposition Dutch Labour Party said the recent ban on the wearing of burqas and other Muslim veils in public does not really address the problems of integration and multiculturalism. As campaigning winds down ahead of Wednesday's (November 22) election, Labour Party leader Wouter Bos said the government should focus more on curbing unemployment and giving migrant children proper education. "Wearing the burqa and allowing it or forbidding it says a little bit about society you want to live in, whether you want to be able to look each other in the eye, or you want to isolate yourself from the rest of the society so I understand why it is so much a symbol of discussion on multiculturalism. But in terms of a problem it represents, it hardly does. I mean, you know, we've got cities falling apart now where large groups of children of migrant origin cannot pass their tests at school, their parents and grandparents are unemployed, it's where ethnic segregation seems to fall together with socio-economic segregation and those are the real big problems that we have. We run the risk of getting problems like in French banlieux and that is the real issue at stake here in the Netherlands if you talk about multiculturalism, integration, etc. And burqas, you know, you are not going to solve problems in the inner cities by forbidding a burqa, so, that's to put it into perspective," Bos said as he took a break from his campaign on Sunday (November 19). The Dutch government on Friday (November 17) agreed a total ban on the wearing of burqas and other Muslim face veils in public places after more than a year of debate, justifying the move on public security grounds. Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk must now draw up the necessary legislation which will see the Netherlands, once one of Europe's most laid-back nations, impose some of the continent's toughest laws against concealing the face. The announcement comes at a time when the debate on face veils and whether they prevent Muslims from integrating has gathered momentum across Europe and drawn comments from Britain's Tony Blair, Italy's Romano Prodi and the Vatican. Last December Dutch lawmakers voted in favour of a proposal by far-right politician Geert Wilders to outlaw face-coverings and asked Verdonk to examine the feasibility of such a ban. She had feared that the fact veils were worn for religious reasons could bring new legislation into conflict with Dutch religious freedom laws, but said on Friday this was not the case. Existing legislation already limits the wearing of burqas and other total coverings in public transport or schools. "I think it's a kind of a pressure for the people who do wear that veil, because when they are forbidden to wear it, they won't come out from their house, so they won't be participating in their community, Saida, a Dutch student of immigrant origin said to Reuters. A Dutch woman agrees with Saida: "They say it is necessary for identification, but I don't think there are a lot of terrorists under the burqa." Naima Azough, Dutch politician of Morroccan origin who campaigned on Saturday in an immigrant neighbourhood of Amsterdam, is scared of young Muslims' reaction on such a ban: "I think the only response will be that more young women will say: "Out of protest, I will also wear a burqa now!" The Muslim community estimates that only about 50 women in the Netherlands wear the head-to-toe burqa or the niqab, a face veil that conceals everything but the eyes, and in some cases, even the eyes. Non-Muslims talk about a hundred women at the most. A burqa ban would only make the country's one million Muslims feel more victimized and alienated, regardless of whether they approve of burqas or not, Dutch Muslim groups have complained. In recent years the Dutch have lost their reputation for tolerance and pushed through some of Europe's toughest entry and integration laws. Social and religious tensions have escalated in the last few years, exacerbated by the murder of film director Theo van Gogh by a Dutch-Moroccan militant in 2004. The Netherlands would be the first European state to impose a countrywide ban on Islamic face coverings, though other countries have already outlawed them in specific places. Italy has a decades-old law against covering the face in public as an anti-terrorism measure and some politicians have called for this rule to be enforced against veiled Muslim women.

ITN Source | November 21, 2006

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