France’s burqa bank goes too far: Worthington | Peter Worthington | Columnists | Comment | Toronto Sunby
Peter WorthingtonThe shoe has finally been dropped in Europe — France has banned face coverings in public places: In practical terms, that means the burqa and niqab.
The penalty if found guilty is a fine of some $200 — and/or taking citizenship lessons. Kind of puny, but still symbolic.
It’s fair to wonder “why” such a law, in a country of some 65 million people where only an estimated 2,000 women wear face-coverings?
The law is aimed at France’s restive Muslim community, which is about 5% of the country’s population but gathered in communities that give a different impression.
All of Europe is uneasy about the growing Muslim population and its increasing militancy. In hitherto placid Denmark, Muslim imams are advocating the implementation of Sharia law, and anticipating that a high Muslim birthrate will someday result in Muslims having greater influence in future elections.
The Netherlands has wrestled with Islamic extremism even before film director Theo Van Gogh was murdered in the 2004, with a note on a knife plunged in his chest warning that Ayaan Hirsi Ali was also slated for death.
At the time, Somali-born Hirsi Ali was an elected Netherlands MP who collaborated on a documentary, Submission, that detailed Islamic abuses towards women.
Some “experts” predict the 16 million Muslims who live in the European Union will double within the decade. Other predictions are that by the end of this century, 25% of Europe (excluding the Balkans and Turkey) will be Muslim.
Such demographic predictions have a way of panicking people, even though they often are without substance. (Remember predictions that oil was running out; that the world population would outgrow its food supply; that the end of the Soviet Union marked the end of history?)
What has Europe alarmed about Muslims in general is not the majority per se, but that moderate Muslims are largely silent or neutral about the actions of jihadists and extremists.
Already, Sharia courts have sprung up in several British cities The uneasy attitude about Muslims can be as unfair as it is understandable. But it does exist, and not to acknowledge this existence guarantees things are likely to get worse.
By 2030, the Muslim populations of Britain, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, Finland, are expected to double. To many, France’s ban on face-covering (in Sweden it’s a human right to cover one’s face) is propagating negative stereotypes, and even encouraging hate crimes — both by Muslims and against Muslims.
Italy, for instance, has fewer Muslims in its population (1.5%) than other European countries, yet even with a small population, some Muslims have demanded crucifixes be removed from public buildings, including schools and hospitals. The government rejected this bid, but wants to limit the building of new mosques.
Quebec banning face coverings for public employees or those dealing with government services, has resonated elsewhere, especially when the custom has little to do with religion.
If wearing burqa or niqab is a matter of choice, it is one thing. If it is demanded by husbands, on threat of punishment, against the will of the woman, it is wrong. But how to differentiate between the two standards?
What a woman wearing a burqa in a free society is saying, is she is a repressed individual, the property of a man, someone who believes in sexual mutilation, and is a prisoner of cultural dogmatism.
It that’s what some women want, it’s their right. For the moment.
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