OnIslam & News Agencies
BRUSSELS – Following France’s steps, Belgium will become the second European country to ban Muslim face veil, or niqab, in public places as of coming July 23 when the law banning the religious outfit becomes effective.
“I don’t like the burqa. Every person should be visible,” Emir Kir, the Secretary for Public Sanitation and Monument Conservation in the Brussels region, told Care2 website on Friday, July 15.
“But I wonder if we need a law on it. If we do this, we could make it a symbol and reinforce extremists on all sides.
“And in the middle of this economic crisis, where everyone is concerned about their job, this is not the number one problem.”
According to the new law, passed earlier this week, Muslim women would not be allowed to go in public while donning full face veil.
If any woman failed to comply with the law, she will be punished with a penalty of 137.50 euros ($195) and up to seven days behind bars in jail as a punishment.
The law was backed at first reading in April 2010, but the second-reading vote was postponed as a consequence of the fall of the Belgian government and early elections held in June 2010. Belgium is still being governed by a caretaker cabinet.
Before the second-reading vote, the debate in the Belgian Parliament appeared less heated than it had been in 2010, French daily Le Figaro reported.
Supporters claim that the bill is intended to promote women's rights and prevent a split between the Islamic community and the rest of Belgian society, though Amnesty International condemned such a ban as an “attack on religious freedom.”
On the other hand, Belgian Muslims see the measure as discriminatory, describing the move as stigmatizing the entire Muslim minority community.
Belgian Muslims are estimated at 450,000 – out of a 10-million-population – about half of them are from Moroccan origin, while 120,000 are from Turkish origin.
Yet, a very small portion estimated to 200 to 300 of the country’s hundreds of thousands of Muslims wear the face veil in public.
While hijab is an obligatory code of dress for Muslim women, the majority of Muslim scholars agree that a woman is not obliged to wear the face veil.
Scholars believe it is up to women to decide whether to take on the veil or burqa, a loose outfit covering the whole body from head to toe and wore by some Muslim women.
Not in UK
Shocked by the recent law passed in Belgium, Britain’s Muslims ruled out a similar ban in multicultural, tolerance UK, Catholic News website reported.
"Implementing the burqa ban will not happen because the UK is a more open and inclusive society than the rest of Europe ... Multiculturalism is a British institution and the whole nation wants to preserve it," the Muslim Council of Britain, MCB, told reporters.
Experiencing Britain’s tolerant environment, Muslims ruled out a similar ban to that applied so far in France, Belgium and some Spanish and German cities.
"There's a more tolerant environment in the UK and they are much more inclusive than the French and Belgian societies," Nabila Ramdani, a Paris-born UK-based journalist and academic says.
"Britain has always been more inclusive and practically deals with multiculturalism. You see it everywhere with minorities represented in media, politics, and business -- something you don't see in France or Belgium."
Moreover, Ramdani cited the British anti-discrimination laws as protecting the UK from politicians passing such laws.
"There are no strong anti-discrimination laws in Belgium and France to fight that,” she said.
“Worse, in both countries you have institutionalized racism."
The burqa has been the center of fierce debate since France banned the wearing in public places.
Following France and Belgium, several European countries, including Spain, are mulling similar moves.
Following the French law, enacted in September, calls have grown in Britain for a similar ban.
A YouGov survey conducted last year found that some 67 percent of Britons favor face-veils to be made illegal.
Last year, lawmaker Philip Hollobone introduced a bill in the parliament for Britain to follow France in outlawing face-veils in public.
The right-wing United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip) has also supported calls for a veil ban in Britain.
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