UK Unlikely To Ban Burqa After Belgium And France, Says Key Muslim Organisation

Burqa

The Huffington Post   First Posted: 15/07/11 01:55 BST Updated: 13/09/11 11:12 BST

Belgium will become the second EU nation to ban the burqa and niqab after France, reported RTE, Ireland's public service broadcaster. Starting next week, Muslim women who choose to wear the garment that covers their face and body will be fined €137.50 (£120) and spend up to seven days behind bars.

Belgium and France are not the only countries to embark on this controversial move. Just this week, Australia also followed suit by cobbling together a proposed law that would require women to unveil themselves for security purposes if requested by a law enforcement official, reported News.com.au.

But Britain's key Muslim civil society organisation said chances of a similar initiative implemented here in the UK are slim.

According to the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) -- a national umbrella organisation that aims to promote cooperation and consensus on Muslim affairs in the UK -- it boils down to the tolerance woven throughout UK society.

“Implementing the burqa ban will not happen because the UK is a more open and inclusive society than the rest of Europe ... Multiculturism is a British institution and the whole nation wants to preserve it,” the MCB told The Huffington Post.

Nabila Ramdani, a Paris-born UK-based journalist and academic, told The Huffington Post that a lack of tolerance is the reason European countries are adopting the burqa ban. “There’s a more tolerant environment in the UK and they are much more inclusive than the French and Belgian societies. Britain has always been more inclusive and practically deals with multiculturalism. You see it everywhere with minorities represented in media, politics, business -- something you don't see in France or Belgium.”

But Ramdani also said that the UK’s anti-discrimination laws -- unlike in Belgium and France -- protect the UK from politicians passing such laws. “There are no strong anti-discrimination laws in Belgium and France to fight that. Worse, in both countries you have institutionalized racism."

Though the UK government went on record saying it would never adopt such measures, calling them “unBritish,” just last year a YouGov poll revealed that a majority of Britons expressed that they would like to see the garment banned, with only 27 percent disagreeing that the garment should be completely outlawed.

Belgium’s ban kicking off next week may stir debate in the House of Commons, but the passage of a similar law in the UK remains unlikely.

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Belgium will become the second EU nation to ban the burqa and niqab after France, reported RTE, Ireland's public service broadcaster. Starting next week, Muslim women who choose to wear the garment th...
Belgium will become the second EU nation to ban the burqa and niqab after France, reported RTE, Ireland's public service broadcaster. Starting next week, Muslim women who choose to wear the garment th...
 
 
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11:52 PM on 08/01/2011
i think halloween should be an exception.
07:51 PM on 07/28/2011
it amazes me how people get so outraged over a small piece of fabric. besides security purposes, what other reason would you need to see a person's face? we are use to looking at people's facial expression. and looking at people's beauty. and a woman that veils takes that away. contray to belief, most muslim women in the world veil (wear niqaab) because they want to not because they are forced to by their male family members. citing a few countries that do is generalization. and confusing culture with islam. women in africa, southeast asia, and the west, wear it because they want to.

surprisingly enough more western converts wear niqaab than the immigrants. soo many westerners have converted to islam. and the media always down plays the numbers. but the women in the west wearing niqaab are white or black. lived for many generations in the society and choose islam over christianity. and then choose to veil over showing their face. so they can't go home. they are home. and they are abiding by the laws of the land. that is until some politicians felt that islam was threatening their way of life. threatening their secular values. and made new laws to prevent that from happening.
09:07 PM on 07/26/2011
When will the actual dialogue take place? It seems everyone is keen to push their own ideas and whims upon the other. Isn't that a definition of oppression? What is wrong with a woman choosing to wear a veil? What is wrong with asking a woman wearing a veil to identify herself by another woman? What is wrong with a woman doing what she feels is right or comfortable?

For myself, it makes me extremely uneasy to look upon anyone's nakedness, so, I turn my head. I do not ask those who do so to cover themselves. Likewise, I do not ask those who choose to cover themselves to reveal themselves to everyone because I am curious as to what they look like.

There has to be a middle ground. I believe that the middle ground is to not impose our culture or religion on anyone else. Live and let live. There is nothing dangerous with people choosing to cover themselves, provided they identify themselves when there is a necessity such as going through security. Just because I don't like they way someone looks, (such as some of the fashion trends) it doesn't give me the right to force change upon anyone else. Religion is deeply personal and we have no right to interpret someone's personal beliefs to suit our beliefs. Perhaps, if we all sincerely learned about each other we would not be having these types of ridiculous discussions.
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AnaM
05:05 PM on 07/22/2011
This is the beginning.
Europe will ban the niqab and so they should. I hope they ban it in Australia.
How do these women educate their young female children on the reasons they wear this oppressive piece of cloth?
If I were to go to Saudi Arabia, I would be expected to cover up and fair enough.That is their country. It is governed by Sharia Law. In my country, there is no Sharia Law. It is not Islamic. Ergo...
Enough political correctness already!
The niqab is not about religion. The Quran doesn't even mention niqabs.
09:24 PM on 07/18/2011
Turkey BANNED the veil almost a century ago! So were they being intolerant of Muslims? It would hardly seem so since it is a Muslim country. So if Turkey can ban such garb, it is MORE than reasonable for the UK and western Europe to do so.
Clevelandinwi
Progressive is good; regressive, not so much.
03:26 AM on 07/18/2011
Countries have to ban these things in order to free the women wearing them from themselves.
12:18 PM on 07/18/2011
To protect our societies from people who are playing the victim game and plan to change our values.
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paul679
12:04 AM on 07/18/2011
Although I'm not keen on the burqa in this country, it's a bad idea to ban it, basically because it's simply a traditional dress from/in the middle east. However, the niqab is different. I have lived in many Arab countries where that HAS to be worn, and some where it doesn't.

Here, in the U.K. I find it insulting and bad-mannered. Obviously some Muslim women have to wear it - because of their domineering, backward menfolk - and they have an excuse. But others, who wear it willingly, are deliberately stubborn and offensive. Our problem is: where do you draw the line? It's up to responsible Muslim leaders to advise greater assimilation, and after a while (especially with the bans in Europe) the Muslims who were either born or who emigrated here are grateful enough to see sense.
12:19 PM on 07/18/2011
You are very polite. Did you know that they wear such garments because the woman's body is considered as nakedness? What do you thin of that?
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opinioned1
MADAM president 2016
05:39 PM on 07/18/2011
Be a much safer world if everyone was a nudist. Isn`t that how we entered the world?
09:19 PM on 07/17/2011
Let's just ban all clothing not made for corporate profit by the third world children
08:35 PM on 07/17/2011
Ban Fredericks of Hollywood....
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JAN KULCZYCKI
08:29 PM on 07/17/2011
I don't think anyone outside the culture has the right to enter an opinion, One of the most beautiful women I have known, for a while covered her face and her hair. SHE chose after a time to relax that constraint. She also once confided to me that she would die for her religion. I can't imagine what it was like for her. I learned later that other staff had confronted her in the staff lounge... asking her how she could support terrorism. Damn... the real terrorists were the staff questioning her about her religion. Islam has nothing... absolutely nothing to do with terrorism.
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StrawHat
Eat veggies, don't vote for them
07:48 PM on 07/17/2011
As there is no way to know whether a woman is being forced to wear one, has been brainwashed into wearing one, or is truly voluntary in wearing one, I think they should be banned in every civilized country. But burkas and niqabs are part of a pattern of abuse of women, and should be treated as such.

When men start wearing a bag over their body with only an eye hole in order to follow the modesty edicts of the Koran, then we can talk. As long as these men are running around the soccer field in tee-shirts and shorts while their "modest" women are in the niqab, it's not too hard to infer what's going on here: oppression.
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bmuesli
04:17 AM on 07/18/2011
I live in a suburb of Philadelphia , in a community that has people from many cultures and ethnicities. When dropping off my son at middle school or attending events at the local high school, I can't help but notice families where the women and girls are wearing headscarves and long sleeves,pants, and skirts while the males are wearing shorts and polo shirts. It's 90 degrees outside and the women and girls are swathed in layers of fabric and the men and boys are fancy-free.

I would say that in institutions where dress codes are in place, such as schools and workplaces, these garments should be banned. One can only hope that in a few generations of living in the United States, these archaic dress codes will disappear.
05:50 PM on 07/18/2011
Yeah, funny how that works, isn't it? It's just a removable, reversible form of Asian foot-binding. Or, the European chastity belt.
05:39 PM on 07/18/2011
Bravo! F&F
06:01 PM on 07/17/2011
Why should anyone be tolerant of intolerance?

France tried that with hitler, and how did that work out for them? This is just a slower invasion of a just as dangerous ideology... Keep defending it, and it will be you being stoned being an unbeleiver, etc. Errr, well, probably only if you are a women...
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StrawHat
Eat veggies, don't vote for them
08:20 PM on 07/17/2011
Exactly.

Tolerating oppression doesn't make you tolerant. It makes you a collaborator.
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amber15
09:38 PM on 07/17/2011
thank you, I agree.
-lets embrace the devil, give him a microphone and a platform to preach evil ways so we can say we are an equal opportunist.

Nothing but recipe for your own destruction.
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taoistpunk
because the monks wouldn't have me..
10:47 PM on 07/17/2011
which is why you never buy anything made in China or pumped from Saudi Arabia, right?
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taoistpunk
because the monks wouldn't have me..
10:43 PM on 07/17/2011
Yeah, if only the French people would have become Nazi's then the Germans couldn't have invaded them...
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10:57 PM on 07/19/2011
What? You suck at analogies.
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MarcEdward
likes all cats more than most people
05:43 PM on 07/17/2011
Belgium, one more country that you can't think of a single good thing about.
Now they can add crass religious bigotry to their ignoble history.
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amber15
09:25 PM on 07/17/2011
stick with animals, thinking doesn't become you.
04:10 PM on 07/17/2011
Hadeeth Shareef: Sahih Muslim 42:7136
Abu Huraira reported that the rat (is the result of) metamorphosis (of a group of Bani Isra'il) and the proof of this is that when the milk of goat is placed before it, it drinks it, and when the milk of the camel is placed before it, it would not taste it at all. Ka'b said: Did you hear it from Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him)? Thereupon he said: Has Torah been revealed to me?
02:35 PM on 07/17/2011
Burkas should not be allowed in all non-islamic countries.They are insufferable and oppress women.
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MarcEdward
likes all cats more than most people
05:43 PM on 07/17/2011
How does wearing a garment voluntarily oppress anybody?
07:41 PM on 07/17/2011
First, the assertion of "voluntary" is suspect when there are COUNTLESS instances of persecution and violence by Muslims against un-covered women.

And second, why don't you grab an old bedspread, cut an eyeslit in it, and see how easy it is to go about your day? Or just an hour, for that matter?

But for the safety of us all, please don't get behind the wheel until your experiment is over.
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StrawHat
Eat veggies, don't vote for them
07:52 PM on 07/17/2011
Define "voluntary".