Latest update: 03/05/2010 

- Burqa - French politics - Islam - Islamic veil - law - Muslims - Nicolas Sarkozy


France: The burqa debate is back (part 2)

Renée Kaplan interviews Amel Boubekeur, Associate Scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center; Donald Morrison, Time Magazine Contributor; José-Manuel Lamarque, journalist at France Inter Radio; and Benjamin Lancar, President of the UMP’s Youth Movement.

 

 

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Since January 11th, France has a new president - a warrior president. On that day, François Hollande decided to send French troops into Mali, first in the air and now on the ground, and for quite a while it seems. At first, most political parties rallied around the flag and supported the war, but it now appears the consensus is starting to crumble.
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French intervention in Mali: a turning point in Hollande's presidency? (Part 1)

Friday January 11th, French combat helicopters flew into northern Mali to stop the advance of islamist fighters who control the north of the country, and that includes the local branch of Al Qaeda. And France is now waging war in the Sahara desert, to rid Mali and the entire region of these groups. How does this impact the Hollande presidency? Will it define his political future?

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Burqa ban in France

Isn't France reducing itself to the level of those Middle-Eastern states that control what women can wear in public?
Isn't it also doing precisely what it complains that Islam does by demanding certain codes of dress for women?

Whatever happened to 'liberty, egality, fraternity'?

Donald Morrison has lived in

Donald Morrison has lived in Paris for some time so you might think he was a bit more aware of French sensitivities. He comes across as a someone who thinks the primary American politicial philosophy of individual rights should trump the primary French political philosophy of egalitarianism and secularism.

The burqa debate, I dare you say what you mean

This is not a security issue only as often claimed in the debate.

Such a simple garment and yet it means and represents so much more…

The burqa debate is a symptom of deeper issues in France which the French media are too scared to tackle for fear of not being politically correct, more than their jobsworth?

Most decent law abiding tax paying French people know exactly what this is about.
Only, it is not pc to speak against it, or are times changing?
This burqa symbolically represents encroachment on and suppression of personal freedom.

Why do Muslim women wear this quaint and unattractive garment?
Because they are commanded to be modest and that the imams tell us is because men can not control themselves so must not be provoked by women.
WHAT an insult to the men of France, of Europe, you are being shown by this garment you are considered beasts or worse...
What does this tell us of Muslim attitudes?

This is a public sign of Islam in France, symbolic and the more women wear the burqa the easier it is for Muslims to pressure other women into adopting burqa.
I have witnessed this encroachment myself while living with Arabs in Albi.

I am all for religious freedom provided the activities are not anti social and do not seek to undermine the traditional culture of Europe - which is the avowed publicly stated aim of a large number of Muslims?

Polygamy; by French law, the man should be jailed, regardless of his religion, good.
Why is this man not being prosecuted? If a Frenchman has more than one wife he is prosecuted.
Do we now have a secondary judicial attitude if the man is Muslim?
However, Muslims tell us they aspire to have several wives and as many children as Allah will bless them with.
BUT, who pays? The Muslim community? Have you seen that happen, no, so who pays?
The State, France, the French tax payer, is stuck with paying social benefits including medical and educational expenses for “unmarried women” whose men can not support them.
What does it cost France to support this man, his 4 wives and numerous children, how many Euros?
What does this “tribe” do for France?
To make this worse France is encouraging and helping these breeders, the more children these women have the more the French taxpayer (France, the State) pays them!
The Muslim attitude here is at least irresponsible, an anti social attitude on the part of all these breeders, probably illegal, who benefits, France?
In former times, women who had children out of wedlock were called names like tart, scrubber and their children, bastards, happily we rarely use those terms now even if the activity remains in effect much the same and is - yes, promoted by Islam.

This is part of the real agenda and real price of allowing Muslims to establish themselves in France and Europe.
The burqa is symbolic.

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