Dutch consider banning muslim burqas in public
The Dutch decided that you can’t cover your face, especially with a burqa.
Five days before a national election here, the center-right government announced Friday that it planned to introduce legislation to ban burqas and similar garments in public places, saying the full-body garb worn by a small number of Muslim women in the Netherlands posed a grave security threat.
The Netherlands has been considering such a move for months, in reaction to the burqa and other articles of clothing that hide the wearer’s face. The government has raised the fear that a terrorist might wear such a garment to move beyond security checks and carry out an attack.
“The cabinet finds it undesirable that face-covering clothing — including the burqa — is worn in public places for reasons of public order, security and protection of citizens,” the immigration minister, Rita Verdonk, said Friday.
About a million Muslims live in the Netherlands, about 6 percent of the population, and only 50 to 100 women regularly wear a burqa here, Muslim groups say, making them a rare sight. In light of that, some Muslims say they see the entire burqa issue as a referendum on their very existence here, a suggestion that government officials deny.
The fate of the Dutch proposal is uncertain, and critics accused the government of introducing it as a campaign ploy in a country that is still reeling from the 2004 murder of a filmmaker, Theo van Gogh, by a Muslim fundamentalist.
Last month, Britain’s former foreign secretary, Jack Straw, raised a commotion when he urged Muslim women to remove full facial veils when talking to him, saying the veil was “such a visible statement of separation and of difference” that it jeopardized British social harmony. Prime Minister Tony Blair subsequently backed Mr. Straw.
Prime Minister Romano Prodi of Italy has also joined the debate. “You can’t cover your face, you must be seen,” Mr. Prodi said last month.
nytimes
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