Netherlands: Dual nationality and burqa bans are still on the cards, says minister

Netherlands: Dual nationality and burqa bans are still on the cards, says minister

Via DutchNews:

It is up to MPs to decide whether to drop the proposed bans on dual nationality and the burqa, not the cabinet, home affairs minister Liesbeth Spies told parliament on Tuesday evening.

Spies said two weeks ago in an interview with the Volkskrant that as far as she is concerned, both pieces of legislation can be dropped.

(source)

READ MORE - Netherlands: Dual nationality and burqa bans are still on the cards, says minister

France: Veil ban 'increased hostility towards Muslim women'

France: Veil ban 'increased hostility towards Muslim women'

Via Asian Image:

New research shows that that there is a link between the banning of the veil in France and increased levels of hostility towards veiled Muslim women.

The Research from the Department of Criminology at the University of Leicester suggests that the veil ban stigmatises veiled Muslim women as ‘criminals’ and fosters Muslim ‘otherness’.

Even if not explicitly inciting hate-motivated violence, the law in its application contributes to a climate of intolerance of Islam in the West.  

(source)

READ MORE - France: Veil ban 'increased hostility towards Muslim women'

Netherlands: Dutch to ditch burqa ban

Netherlands: Dutch to ditch burqa ban


Via RNW:

Interior Minister Liesbeth Spies says the burqa ban she helped prepare can be scrapped along with a proposed ban on holding dual citizenship.

Now that the cabinet’s fallen, she "wouldn’t shed a tear" if parliament were to scrap the controversial Freedom Party-sponsored bill. "Now that the cabinet’s fallen, there’s no longer any payoff," she told national daily de Volkskrant on Wednesday.

(source)

READ MORE - Netherlands: Dutch to ditch burqa ban

Brussels: Mayor accuses journalists of Nazi propaganda after program on Islamism in his town

Brussels: Mayor accuses journalists of Nazi propaganda after program on Islamism in his town

The recent RTBF program on Islamism in Brussels continues to make waves.  See also:Brussels: Imam speaks against Women's Day, Jews.

Via Knack (h/t NRP):

Philippe Moureaux (Socialists), mayor of Molenbeek (Brussels), is upset at the journalists of the RTBF program "Questions à la Une".  Moureaux accuses them of racism and Islamophobia.

The actuality program focused on Islamism and showed women walking around Molenbeek wearing burkas.  Burkas are banned in the town.  "Showing that as evidence that Islamism is increasing is pure manipulation," Moureaux told Maghreb TV.

The mayor also appears in the program, but says he was abused by a program 'that only shows unpleasant images and let known Islamophobes speak."  The Muslim people of Molenbeek "deserve the greatest respect.  we shouldn't accuse an entire group just because we don't like the behavior of some people.  That is what Goebbels did to the Jews."

RTBF are outraged at the accusations and are considering filing a complaint against the mayor.

READ MORE - Brussels: Mayor accuses journalists of Nazi propaganda after program on Islamism in his town

Birmingham: Police hunt man who ripped off Muslim woman's face veil in Solihull

Birmingham: Police hunt man who ripped off Muslim woman's face veil in Solihull
Via the Birmingham Mail:

DETECTIVES are hunting a man who grabbed a Muslim woman by the head and pulled off her face covering in a packed shopping centre.

The thug approached the 26-year-old from behind in Solihull’s Touchwood shopping centre on Saturday, March 3 at 2pm.

As she walked past the Disney Store he grabbed her head and ripped the veil from her face, throwing it on the floor before walking off. 

(source)

READ MORE - Birmingham: Police hunt man who ripped off Muslim woman's face veil in Solihull

France: 'It's the ban that's restrictive, not the burqa'

France: 'It's the ban that's restrictive, not the burqa'

In the year since the veil ban was introduced in France, 299 women were fined for wearing the full veil.

Via DW:

In the Parisian suburbs, Mabrouka is experiencing that very sense of exclusion. But she does not conform to the stereotype of a downtrodden woman. Born in Lyon to Tunisian parents, she works part-time as a private tutor, and continues to visit her students in their nearby homes. She is highly educated, having studied Arabic and history at university, and she's also qualified to teach French as a foreign language.

She started wearing the niqab seven years ago as a symbol of her devotion to God. She says her husband had nothing to do with her choice, as she was already wearing it when she met him. Under the law, anyone forcing a woman to wear a full veil can be fined up to 30,000 euros, but so far no one has been punished for that offence.

Mabrouka admits that it may seem bizarre to subject herself to such a restrictive life for a piece of cloth, but she claims it's French society, not her religion, that is hampering her freedom. After a year of living under the new law, she's even thinking about leaving the country in which she was born.

(source)

READ MORE - France: 'It's the ban that's restrictive, not the burqa'

UK: Wearing a veil helps give Muslim women strength, says archbishop

UK: Wearing a veil helps give Muslim women strength, says archbishop

Via the Sunday Times:

THE Archbishop of Canterbury believes that British Muslim women can “help assert themselves” by wearing a veil.

Speaking at The Sunday Times Literary Festival in Oxford, Rowan Williams questioned the view that women hid behind veils and warned against “what we sometimes think of wrongly as stereotypes”.

(source)

READ MORE - UK: Wearing a veil helps give Muslim women strength, says archbishop

UK: New Scout uniform for Muslim girls

UK: New Scout uniform for Muslim girls




Via the Daily Mail:

The Scouts have designed a special uniform for Muslim girls to cater for their growing female membership.

A hoodie dress and a T-shirt dress which ‘encapsulate the adventurous spirit of Scouting’ are now available to attract recruits from Muslim families.

It is hoped that the new uniforms will allow the movement to build on its growing popularity with girls. Around one in six of the 400,000 UK Scouts is a girl.
(source)

READ MORE - UK: New Scout uniform for Muslim girls

Paris: Girl sent home from school - skirt too long

Paris: Girl sent home from school - skirt too long

Via the Local:

A secondary school student near Paris was accused of wearing provocative clothing and sent back home. The school thought her skirt was too long, and conveyed religious values.

"Other students come dressed up as hippies or goths and nobody says anything," the girl, Khadija, told the French daily Le Parisien, "but I’m not even allowed to wear a gypsy skirt."

"If I had come to school wearing a veil I would have understood their reaction," says Khadija, who is a student at the Edmond-Rostand secondary school at Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône near Paris.

On Monday, Khadija was sent home from school for wearing a long skirt that according to the school conveyed religious values.

"It was a beautiful day, I wore a long skirt," says Khadija, "the headmistress told me I was being provocative and sent me home."

An official belonging to the local academic authority however denies Khadija was expelled from the school and says the skirt had only been "commented on".

(source)

READ MORE - Paris: Girl sent home from school - skirt too long

Ireland: Muslims asked to remove headscarves for new Garda card

Ireland: Muslims asked to remove headscarves for new Garda card

Via the Irish Times:

REPRESENTATIVES OF Ireland’s largest Sunni mosque have raised concerns over incidents in which a number of Muslim women were asked to remove their headscarves to comply with new identification procedures at the Garda National Immigration Bureau in Dublin.

The new procedures, which include a biometric fingerprint-capture system, were introduced in recent weeks.

(source)

READ MORE - Ireland: Muslims asked to remove headscarves for new Garda card

UK: Muslim juror who refused to take veil off is ordered to stand down by judge

UK: Muslim juror who refused to take veil off is ordered to stand down by judge

Via the Daily Mail (h/t DW):

A Muslim woman was barred from serving on a jury yesterday because she refused to remove her veil.

In an extraordinary ruling, a judge said she could not sit on an attempted murder trial because her full face covering, known as the niqab, concealed her expressions.

(source)

READ MORE - UK: Muslim juror who refused to take veil off is ordered to stand down by judge

France: Women's match called off over hijab

France: Women's match called off over hijab

Via AFP:

A referee on Sunday refused to officiate a French women's football match, when players for one of the teams took the pitch wearing Muslim headscarves, the club involved said.

The official sent a report to the Languedoc-Roussillon league in the south of the country about the incident involving players from Petit-Bard Montpellier, who had been due to play Narbonne in the regional promotion tie.

(source)

READ MORE - France: Women's match called off over hijab

Switzerland: Upper house buries anti-burqa motion

Switzerland: Upper house buries anti-burqa motion

Via Le Matin:

The Swiss upper house buried a motion Monday to ban the burqa. Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga argued the problem was insignificant in terms of numbers, and that no more than 100-150 women wore the burqa nationwide, most of them tourists. The cantons are still free to enact their own laws on the matter.

READ MORE - Switzerland: Upper house buries anti-burqa motion

Belgium: Can staff be sacked for wearing a headscarf?

Belgium: Can staff be sacked for wearing a headscarf?

Via VRT:

Belgium's anti-racism centre is taking the Dutch store Hema to court after it sacked an employee following complaints from customers that she was wearing a Muslim headscarf.

The centre says that it is seeking clarity about a principle.

The employee started to wear the headscarf after she converted to Islam. After the store received several complaints from customers it decided no longer to enlist her services via a temping agency.

(source)

READ MORE - Belgium: Can staff be sacked for wearing a headscarf?

Norway: Professor imposes niqab veto

Norway: Professor imposes niqab veto

Via the Foreigner (h/t DW):

Tromsø University professor Nils Aarsæther has banned niqab-wearing students from attending his lectures.

Speaking to NRK recently, he quoted a parliamentary decision “that says a teacher may request to see the face of those who are taught. This is to do with covering the face, not hats or religious symbols.”

(source)

READ MORE - Norway: Professor imposes niqab veto

Italy: Higher Judicial Council OKs right to wear veil in court

Italy: Higher Judicial Council OKs right to wear veil in court

Via AGI:

The Higher Judicial Council (CSM) has ruled that the veil may be worn on religious grounds in Italian courts. In their plenary session this morning, the majority approved a resolution establishing that "full respect must be assured to to those behaviours which, without causing disturbance to the regular and correct court proceedings, constitute a legitimate exercise of the right to profess one's own religion, including those precepts that relate to clothing and other outward signs."

(source)

READ MORE - Italy: Higher Judicial Council OKs right to wear veil in court

Netherlands: Council of State says burqa is women's choice

Netherlands: Council of State says burqa is women's choice

Via RNW:

The Dutch Council of State says it should be up to women themselves to decide whether or not to wear garments which cover the face. The highest government advisory body argues that ministers shouldn’t use a general ban to rule out the choice of some women to wear the burqa.

(source)

READ MORE - Netherlands: Council of State says burqa is women's choice