Belguim set to ban burka
Belgians may soon be the first Europeans to ban the burka, it has emerged.
Neighbouring France and The Netherlands may also outlaw the clothing that is viewed by many in western European societies as demeaning to women. It also is considered a gateway to radical Islam, a fear that is stoking right-wing sentiment across the continent.
"There is all-party public support for this," says Leen Dierick, a conservative member of the Belgian parliament's Interior Affairs committee that unanimously backed the proposed ban March 31. The initiative is expected become law in July and would apply to all public places, including streets.
Anxieties that visible signs of Islam erode national identity are combining with complaints that immigrants are stealing jobs amid the worst economic slump in decades to deepen a sense of unease in many European countries, small and large alike, over the role of Muslims in society.
Threats against cartoonists and artists over depictions of the prophet Mohammed have also raised fears that Islam is not compatible with Western values of freedom of speech.
Swiss voters recently voted to ban the construction of new minarets. In recent years, both mosque and minaret construction projects in many European countries, including Sweden, France, Italy, Austria, Greece, Germany and Slovenia have generated protests, some of them violent.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy favours a burka ban, saying they compromise women's dignity. Unlike the Belgians or the Dutch - who see a clear and straightforward public security issue - the French are struggling with the constitutionality of outlawing a religious dress code.
Until now, it has been up to city governments in Belgium to crack down on burka-style outfits. "Enforcement by local governments has been patchy," says Dierick. "The point is public security, the need to show one's face in public. Not religious freedom."
The proposed Belgian ban partly underscores how populist politicians across Europe are making a big imprint on attitudes and policies toward immigrants and minorities, especially Muslims.
In The Netherlands, polls indicate that Geert Wilders' anti-Islam Freedom Party could nearly triple its presence in parliament and win 25 or so seats in June elections, up from nine today.
Numbers put growing fears of Europe becoming "Eurabia" into perspective.
Although their ranks are growing, Muslims make up only small minorities in Western Europe.
France has the largest Muslim population of an estimated five million, or 7.5% of the population, followed by the Netherlands with 6%, Germany with 5%, Austria with 4.2%, Belgium with 3% and Britain with 2.7%, according to a 2009 study of the Pew Research Centre in Washington.
Last year the city of Brussels fined only 29 women - down from 33 in 2008 - for wearing a burka-type dress, leading critics to say the regulations are an empty populist gesture. Local rules ban the burka, but the new law would outlaw it on a national level.
France banned Muslim head scarves - as well as Jewish skullcaps and Christian crosses - from schools in 2004.
President Sarkozy says the burka "is not welcome" in France, but the Council of State, France's highest administrative body, has served notice that an outright ban may be unconstitutional.
Politicians in Germany, Spain and Italy have toyed with banning Islamic wear, but so far to no effect.
