PARIS — President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Monday that burkas, garments that cover women from head to toe and hide their faces, had no place in France as they were a sign of the subjugation of women.
During a solemn speech to parliament on a wide range of issues, Mr. Sarkozy backed an initiative launched by legislators last week who expressed concern over an increase in the use of burkas in France.
“The issue of the burka is not a religious issue, it is a question of freedom and of women’s dignity,” Mr. Sarkozy told a joint session of both houses of parliament, held at the Palace of Versailles.
“The burka is not a religious sign, it is a sign of the subjugation, of the submission of women. I want to say solemnly that it will not be welcome on our territory,” he said to strong applause.
Referring to a cross-party initiative by close to 60 legislators last week, who proposed a parliamentary commission to look into the spread of the burka and find ways to combat the trend, Mr. Sarkozy said it was the right way to proceed.
“A debate has to take place and all views must be expressed. What better place than parliament for this? I tell you, we must not be ashamed of our values, we must not be afraid of defending them,” he said.
The debate about the burqa is reminiscent of a controversy that raged for a decade in France about Muslim girls wearing headscarves in class. Eventually, a law was passed in 2004 banning pupils from wearing conspicuous signs of their religion at state schools.
Critics say the law stigmatised Muslims at a time when the country should be fighting discrimination in the job and housing markets that has caused a rift between mainstream society and many youths from an immigrant background.
[Source]
Updates:
9:24 am EDT, June 24th, 2009 — Editorial: No welcome for the burqa
It is about time that a country is standing up for its people. I honestly never would have thought that it would be the French. However, I find it so great that the parliament is defending its ‘natural’ citizens rather than having the immigrants push parliament for their rights like in Belgium, Sweden, Norway, etc.
Hell yeah!
Please.
If you think Sarkozy is going to stand up for France or Europa you’re all crazy.
Google the words: Sarkozy+Metissage
Why would we do that “Mr G”?
Nobody here can read French and we don’t care.
Mr.g, not one of us expect Sarkozy to stand up for France or Europe. But at least he has the balls to speak his mind. He is one of the few politicians to criticize Islam traditions so publicly. So good for him.
Agreed, Matt. Time to call this religion what it truly is — a cult. Like the Samurai.
There is no difference.
The logic for banning the burka is impecable, we don’tthink you should be forced to where those kinds of cloths, it’s way better that you be forced to wear these kinds of cloths.
I can think of no other place than during some good old fashioned Muslim bashing that people would advocate for the creation of the very types of rules that they are complaining about….. the only way that sort of logic could move from sad and pathetic to funny is if it was part of a Monty Python skit.
Nobody is bashing muslims in France. What they are doing is reinforcing the ideals that have made their country what it is. If muslims want to live there they can adopt the rules in place. Otherwise, they can go back where they came from.
I think France needs to pull a few laws that leave them open to a takeover and I also think that Canada needs to think about it too.
Jack, you are right — Islam is little more than a death-loving cult.
It would be very good if a Canadian political leader said what Sarkozy did.
Frankly, I wish that Sarkozy went even further — ban the building of mosques and the wearing of headscarves, and stop all teaching of Islamic beliefs and tenets to the children of Muslim parents.
Imagine the uproar if a Christian ‘gang’ had been responsible. This is unimaginable savagery. Then to make matters worse the Muslim community turns on one of their own for helping to bring the killers to justice.
http://theopinionator.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/02/another-muslim-race-hate-attack-on-kriss-donald-street-1.html
Why I, as a British Muslim woman, want the burka banned.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1195052/Why-I-British-Muslim-woman-want-burkha-banned-streets.html
Jack @ 6:31 on June 24th: “Time to call this religion what it truly is — a cult.”
Jack @ 6:59 on June 24th: “Nobody is bashing muslims in France”
Is there two Jacks, or have you got an extra personality we’re just finding out about?
Or are you using the strict academic defination of the word “cult” which, among other belief structures, Christianity falls under?
Depends on how many beers I’ve had. I’m like a woman — I get to change my mind.
Heh…
BTDT @ 3:56 on June 25th: Islam is a political ideology.
Islam is a religion, exactly the same as Christianity and Judaism. Most of the attacks against it are circumstantial. Everything you can find that Muslims are doing that is bad contains one or more of the following attributes:
1) Equivalent behaviour can be found in recent Christianity
2) The custom is more indigenous to the actual region than it is religious, and for that matter can be found in other religions in the region
3) Part of a geopolitical conflict and given religious overtones
Imagine the uproar if a Christian ‘gang’ had been responsible.
One doesn’t have to imagine. The ultimate result was that the assailants mostly lived long and prosperous lives, with the covert sympathy of the legal/political system and Joe Middle Class. One guy was caught and sentenced when he was already almost dead and that is mostly due to the efforts of the evil, freedom-hating “leftist” groups.
Cynapse, I simply cannot recall a Christian in recent years wearing a head covering, or Christians hijacking a plane and crashing it into the World Trade Center. I don’t think that you can call that “Equivalent” behavior. Don’t get me wrong I strongly believe that the majority of muslims won’t go to that extent. But it does say in the Koran “that we must drive out the infidel” and too all of you that aren’t muslims, you are infidels.
For a period, it was customary for Christian women in Southern Europe to wear head covering. But that’s all aesthetics. The real issue is suppression of women’s rights, and Christianity can claim no victories. Apart from the fact that women have had the vote for less than 100 years (and mostly to the Church’s chagrin), female inheritance was allowed in the Islamic world long before it ever was in Christendom.
Moreover, for all of our babbling about freedom, Sarkozy’s law prevents women who want to wear the burka from doing so. Does anyone not see the irony in this decision?
@beentheredonethat: Really, does that mean that Christians trying and push their ideology on non-Christians in the political arena makes Christianity a political ideology?