Nicolas Sarkozy backs a ban on the full Muslim veil

Times UK ^ | 1/26/2010 | Charles Bremner

[ricks_place]

Curbs on wearing the full Muslim veil come a step closer in France today with a report that will call for a ban on the dress in post offices, universities, hospitals and state-owned premises, as well as public transport.

Last night President Sarkozy was due to endorse the proposals, to be made by an all-party commission. Last week he called the niqab, the form of veil worn in France, “contrary to our values and to the ideals we have of women’s dignity”. Parliament is expected to act on the proposals in the spring.

If they become law women with covered faces would be refused public services such as transport, university classes and benefits.

The popular campaign for an “anti-burka law”, as it is known, is helping Mr Sarkozy after a series of political blunders in recent months that have robbed him of his aura of invincibility. In his appearance last night he sought to restore confidence in his administration. His format — questions from 11 hand-picked members of the public — was attacked by the opposition as “Berlusconi-style” propaganda.

Two out of three people want the veil, worn by a small but growing number of young fundamentalists, to be outlawed anywhere in public, according to opinion polls. Mr Sarkozy’s Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and a section of the left-wing opposition want that, too, but the President called for narrower measures and more thought. France should not stigmatise Muslims, he said.

[ricks_place]

Burn the Veil! Vive l'France!

[gwilhelm56]

WOW!!! The FRENCH pull this off, I’ll have to reconsider my personal ban

[gwilhelm56]

** France should not stigmatise Muslims, he said.**

they should be Scorned and RIDICULED until they are too ashamed to wear those lousy veils.

[Saundra Duffy]

Duh.

[flowerplough]

Those idiot Muslim women want to listen to preachers that order them to be gusseted head to toe with bedsheets and nets, more power to ‘em.

And if the idiot Amish women want to listen to preachers that order them to always do their ironing the hard way, and avoid that English Devil Electricity, what is that to me?

And if the more fundamental of the Mormon women wanta show just how mental they are, and sign up to be some old goat’s seventh wife, well, ain’t seven supposed to be a lucky number?

And if a Jehovie (or is it the Seventh Day-ers?) refuses a blood transfusion to keep him, or his kid alive, I ain’t gonna tie him down and start poking needles into his hide, or tie him down so I can start poking needles into the kid’s hide. As Billy Currington has sung on the country radio stations, God is great, beer is good, and people are crazy. Can’t keep the crazies from their craziness, and shouldn’t often try.

[Travis McGee]

Good for Sarkozy.

[silverleaf]

and if the KK wants ot wear their white sheets on the streets, let them, right?

The burqa and its variants is used as form of in-your-face piety and separation from society intended to shame or intimidate others in that society who are not so “pious”. Upper class arabs will tell you that, privately.

Good for France.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Why go half way, Nicky ? Ban Muslims.

[flowerplough]

and if the KK wants ot wear their white sheets on the streets, let them, right?

Yes, I believe that it probably is their right to do so. In the movie, Inglourious Basterds, Lt. Raine preferred the Nazis he met to actually be dressed like Nazis. Made 'em easier to spot. Granted, a mask and a uniform aren't the same thing, and wearing a mask or disguise in the commission of a crime is a further crime, in itself, but simply wearing a mask or disguise (or uniform) is not a crime, especially on October 31st.