{"id":1500,"date":"2009-06-24T17:58:09","date_gmt":"2009-06-24T17:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/2009\/06\/france-to-consider-banning-bur.php"},"modified":"2009-06-24T17:58:09","modified_gmt":"2009-06-24T17:58:09","slug":"france-to-consider-banning-bur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/06\/france-to-consider-banning-bur","title":{"rendered":"France to Consider Banning Burqas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>PARIS (RNS) Five years after France banned Muslim girls from wearing headscarves in public schools, the government has launched a probe into another Muslim garment &#8212; all-covering burqas or niqabs &#8212; that may lead to a similar injunction in public spaces.<br \/>\nIn July, a 32-member parliamentary commission will begin a six-month investigation into the burqa in France &#8212; particularly whether it clashes with the country&#8217;s fiercely secular creed and violates the dignity of the women who wear it.<br \/>\nThe burqa or niqab &#8212; head-to-toe coverings that hide the face except for a narrow slit for the eyes &#8212; are rarities on French streets.<br \/>\nNo estimates exist about how many women wear them.<br \/>\nNonetheless, the issue has sparked hot debate, dividing not only the center-right government but also France&#8217;s estimated 5 to 6 million-strong Muslim community, Europe&#8217;s largest.<br \/>\nOn Monday (June 22), President Nicolas Sarkozy waded into the fray, saying burqas are &#8220;not welcome&#8221; in France.<br \/>\n&#8220;We cannot accept in our country women who are prisoners behind a grill, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity,&#8221; Sarkozy said in a speech at the Palace of Versailles outside Paris.<br \/>\nA number of French politicians, including Cities&#8217; Minister Fadela Amara &#8212; a Muslim woman of Algerian background &#8212; are similarly opposed to it. But Immigration Minister Eric Besson has come out against a ban, arguing it would create unnecessary tensions.<br \/>\nThe matter has divided Muslims as well. Several prominent leaders have spoken out against the burqa. But Mohammed Moussaoui, head of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, warned that banning the garment &#8212; or even forming a commission to study it &#8212; risked stigmatizing the Muslim community.<br \/>\n&#8220;I am not for women wearing the burqa,&#8221; Moussaoui said in an interview published Wednesday in Le Paisien\/Aujourdhui en France. But a ban, he said, &#8220;risked being counterproductive.&#8221;<br \/>\nFears of stigmatizing Muslims also spiked in 2004, when the government banned students from wearing &#8220;conspicuous&#8221; religious symbols to public schools. While the legislation also covered skull caps and large crosses, much of the protests flared over the headscarves.<br \/>\n<em>By Elizabeth Bryant<br \/>\nCopyright 2009 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PARIS (RNS) Five years after France banned Muslim girls from wearing headscarves in public schools, the government has launched a probe into another Muslim garment &#8212; all-covering burqas or niqabs &#8212; that may lead to a similar injunction in public spaces. In July, a 32-member parliamentary commission will begin a six-month investigation into the burqa&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>France to Consider Banning Burqas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/06\/france-to-consider-banning-bur\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"France to Consider Banning Burqas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"PARIS (RNS) Five years after France banned Muslim girls from wearing headscarves in public schools, the government has launched a probe into another Muslim garment &#8212; all-covering burqas or niqabs &#8212; that may lead to a similar injunction in public spaces. In July, a 32-member parliamentary commission will begin a six-month investigation into the burqa&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/06\/france-to-consider-banning-bur\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-06-24T17:58:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"nsymmonds\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"France to Consider Banning Burqas","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/06\/france-to-consider-banning-bur","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"France to Consider Banning Burqas","og_description":"PARIS (RNS) Five years after France banned Muslim girls from wearing headscarves in public schools, the government has launched a probe into another Muslim garment &#8212; all-covering burqas or niqabs &#8212; that may lead to a similar injunction in public spaces. In July, a 32-member parliamentary commission will begin a six-month investigation into the burqa&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/06\/france-to-consider-banning-bur","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2009-06-24T17:58:09+00:00","author":"nsymmonds","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/06\/france-to-consider-banning-bur","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/06\/france-to-consider-banning-bur","name":"France to Consider Banning Burqas","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-06-24T17:58:09+00:00","dateModified":"2009-06-24T17:58:09+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/06\/france-to-consider-banning-bur#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/06\/france-to-consider-banning-bur"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/06\/france-to-consider-banning-bur#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"France to Consider Banning Burqas"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2","name":"nsymmonds","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","caption":"nsymmonds"},"description":"Nicole Symmonds is Beliefnet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Prayer editor and also covers Christianity. A New Yorker by birth but a Floridian by tenure, Nicole graduated from Florida A&M University with a B.S. in Public Relations and a minor in Sociology. She moved to NY to pursue a career in journalism which started at In Style magazine. There she learned the ropes of magazine reporting, researching, and writing\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand became exponentially more stylish. But what seemed like a deep interest in fashion and entertainment would soon be revealed as merely the vehicle that moved her closer to discovering her purpose, writing and covering matters of the Christian faith. While in her purpose-driven vehicle she can be found traveling between Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens for life, work and worship, respectively. From fashion to faith and the journey isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t over yet\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author\/nsymmonds"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1500\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}