Free Republic

Denmark has approved a plan to erect a fence on its border with Germany to keep out swine fever but critics argue that is a symbolic gesture epitomizing anti-immigrant sentiments. Denmark’s government gave greenlight to the building of the 68-kilometer (42-mile) fence on the border with fellow EU member state Germany. The project is worth EUR 11 million, and is supposed to protect the large Danish pork industry from wild boar that might carry African swine fever, DW reports. The Danish-German border fence will be 1.5 meters tall and half-meter deep, and will run from one coast of the Jutland...

Denmark becomes the sixth European country to enact such a ban, after France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Bulgaria and Austria. "The face is your passport. When you refuse me to see you, I am a victim." — Jacques Myard, a former conservative MP who supported the ban in France. "[S]ome people do not want to be a part of Danish society and want to create parallel societies with their own norms and rules." — Danish Justice Minister Søren Pape Poulsen. The Danish Parliament has passed a ban on Islamic full-face veils in public spaces. The new law, sponsored by Denmark's center-right...

A uniform policy by Scandinavian airline SAS banning staff who deal directly with customers from wearing religious symbols like headscarves does not breach anti-discrimination laws, Sweden’s Discrimination Ombudsman (DO) has judged. The policy first made headlines in April 2017, when a woman who had gone through the interview process for a job with the company was told she would not be allowed to wear a headscarf if she took the position. Aye Alhassani told The Local at the time that she thought it would have been better if the company told her about the policy at the start of the...

The Canadian province of Quebec has passed a sweeping ban on face coverings – barring public workers from wearing the niqab or burqa and obliging citizens to unveil when riding public transit or receiving government services – ushering in a law believed to be the first of its kind in North America. The legislation was adopted on Wednesday, capping off two years of work by the province’s Liberal government to address the issue of state neutrality. The resulting law has been condemned by critics who say it deliberately targets Muslim women and will fuel the province’s simmering debate on identity,...

Since 2011, France has enforced a so-called “burka ban” on Muslims covering their faces in public, making it the first European country to take such measures against publicly-demonstrated Islamic dress codes. About five million Muslims live in France. Offenders in and around Paris usually receive a fine, but on Oct. 3, the ban reached a new level of enforcement, as a Muslim woman was kicked out of the Bastille Opera house after refusing to uncover her face. Performers of La Traviata didn’t notice the woman until the second act, at which point they refused to continue performing until she was...

A French government agency responsible for maintaining the country’s secular values has recommended banning university students from wearing religious symbols such as crucifixes, Jewish skullcaps and Muslim headscarves. In a report seen by French daily Le Monde on Monday, the High Council for Integration (HCI) said it was alarmed by “growing tensions in all sectors of university life” that were undermining the country’s secular values.

British Muslim radicals were among at least 61 people arrested in Paris today in connection with an illegal rally against France’s burka ban. They included Anjem Choudary, the radical cleric who advocates sharia law for the UK and who calls British soldiers murderers. Omar Bakri and Abu Izzadeen, who are also controversial figures, tried to get to the event but were stopped by police. Nineteen veiled women were arrested. A police spokesman said: ‘Muslim leaders from Britain and Belgium were among those detained as they travelled to the event. ‘The fear was that they would inflame the situation. This was...