Category Archives: State Oppression

Catalonia to push ahead with ‘burqa’ ban plans following ECHR ruling

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ramon EspadalerThe government of Spain’s Catalonia region said on Thursday it would push ahead with a planned burqa ban after a recent European Union ruling that banning full face veils in public did not violate the human rights of Muslim women.

The Catalan Government first announced its controversial plans to control the wearing of burqas and other face-covering attire in public spaces “for reasons of public safety” in 2013. The move had nothing to do with religion and would also see the public wearing of garments including helmets and masks banned, Ramon Espadaler, Interior Minister for Catalonia, announced at the time.

On Thursday, Espadaler said the Catalan government would the begin of process of getting the bill approved in the regional parliament after the summer 2014 recess, Spain’s Cuatro TV channel reported.

The recent EU ruling that France’s ban on full-face veils like the burqa and the niqab in public was legal had opened up a “new perspective” on the proposed law in Catalonia, said the minister responding to a question in the Catalan parliament. This meant the region could now leglisate against such face covering from a human rights perspective as well from a safety angle, Espadaler said.

The minister also pointed out the Catalan government wanted to legislate on the issue because previous attempts to do so by individual Catalan towns had been thwarted by Spain’s courts.

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French mayor bans hijab from beach

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Richard TrinquierTwo mothers were refused access to the beach at Wissous, Essonne, because they were wearing Muslim headscarves.

The women had taken their children to the popular summer leisure venue at the weekend, but they fell foul of a new bylaw that refuses entry to anyone wearing distinctive “religious symbols”.

Patrick Kitnais, director of the mayor’s office told Europe 1 that the women were wearing a hijab, a scarf that covers the head but does not hide the face. “The mayor was there, so he denied access to these people,” he said.

The town’s UMP mayor, Richard Trinquier [pictured], who ousted Socialist incumbent Roy Regis-Chevalier in March’s municipal elections, insisted he had applied “the law of the Republic and secularism”, in refusing entry to the two women, and said anyone wearing a distinctive cross or yarmulke would also be banned.

He said that the beach at Wissous is not a public place. It is, he said, a public establishment – and therefore it is bound by laws that prohibit the wearing of religious symbols. “If women remove their veils, they are welcome,” he said.

A 2004 law governing the wearing of conspicuous religious symbols applies only to educational establishments.

Former mayor Mr Regis-Chevalier branded the incident an “Islamophobic act”. And Abdelkrim Benkouhi, president of local Islamic association Al Madina, said: “The children were shocked and did not understand why they could not play on the inflatables like every other child. In previous years, there have been no problems.”

Representatives of Al Madina met the mayor to discuss the matter, but the two sides could not reach an agreement, Le Parisien reports. “The mayor says it is a private space. This is pure and simple discrimination,” Mr Benkouhi said.

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‘Mohammed Raghead’ – the name the FBI were giving to Muslim-American ‘Joe Bloggs’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Intercept Under Surveillance

The US government spied on thousands of law-abiding Muslim-Americans including top US lawyers and academics according to newly-published documents provided by NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden.

The monitoring was authorized under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a law intended to target individuals involved in international terrorism, espionage or sabotage.

The leaked documents published by The Intercept include a list of 7,485 email addresses monitored between 2002 and 2008. Five of the emails identified by journalists have been described as leading “highly public, outwardly exemplary lives”.

A document dating from 2006 from the same cache of files instructed intelligence agency staff how to properly record the identity of those under surveillance and used the fake name of “Mohammed Raghead” as an example.

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Burqa ban isn’t enough says Strache

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The leader of the right-wing Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) says that a burqa ban as proposed by his party isn’t enough, and that he’d like to ban the chador as well, according to a report in the news daily Heute.

After last week’s decision by the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) which supported France’s ban on religious headgear, the Freedom Party announced that they would be introducing a similar measure into Austria’s parliament.

The rule is intended to target the burqa, a traditional garment from the Middle East which completely covers the wearer, including the hair and face.

Now Heinz-Christian Strache, leader of the Austrian Freedom Party, has stated that the proposed ban doesn’t go far enough, and should be extended to include the chador, a traditional Persian head scarf which leaves the face uncovered.

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Aryan blondes too beautiful for niqab, says FPÖ

Posted on by Bob Pitt

FPÖ zu schön für einen schleierAs part of his party’s plan to introduce a bill banning full-face veils, Austrian politician Heinz-Christian Strache posted on a social network an image of a young blonde woman with the phrase “Too beautiful for a veil.”

The campaign was launched by the right-wing Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) leader and Member of Parliament Heinz-Christian Strache on his Facebook page. According to the politician, the poster is aimed “against the Islamization of Europe.”

The image refers to the party’s recent call for a ban on wearing the Muslim burqa in public. Based on the judgement by the European Court of Human Rights, who didn’t oppose the legality of the French burqa ban of 2011, FPÖ plans to introduce the same bill into the Austrian parliament next week.

“In many conservative circles of Islamic immigration society there is a prevailing view that women are second-class citizens,” party spokeswoman Carmen Gartelgruber commented, adding that “one of the many tools of oppression is the burqa.”

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European Court of Human Rights ‘fails to protect religious freedom’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

By upholding a French ban on wearing full-face veils, a common Muslim practice, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has failed to protect the religious freedom of Islamic women who choose the veil as an expression of their faith, according to the Forum for Religious Freedom-Europe (FOREF), an independent non-governmental monitoring group.

EU Reporter, 5 July 2014

Philip Hollobone MP calls for British ban on face veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Philip HolloboneThe Government should press on with banning the veil in Britain after a French law doing the same was upheld by the European Court of Human Rights, a Tory MP said today.

Kettering MP Philip Hollobone, who has proposed back bench legislation to ban face coverings in the past, urged Commons Leader Andrew Lansley to find time for a Government statement on the issue. Mr Hollobone, a prominent eurosceptic who more typically criticises the European Court, raised the issue at the weekly Commons business statement.

He said: “This week finally, at long last, we have had a sensible decision from the European Court of Human Rights about something.

“Given this week, the court has decided that the ban on Islamic veils in France breaches no-one’s human rights, will you or another member of the Government next week make a statement to the House that Her Majesty’s Government intends to introduce such legislation into this country?

“We will never have a fully functioning, fully integrated multi-cultural society if growing numbers of our citizens go around with their faces covered.”

But Mr Lansley replied: “I did note that court decision… part of that decision was about the issues of subsidiarity and the right of countries to make these decisions for themselves. In that context I don’t anticipate a statement by a minister in the form you seek.”

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ECHR ruling inspires FPÖ proposal for ‘burqa’ ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Austria’s Freedom Party (FPÖ) is calling for a ban on burqas, after the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) backed France’s rules on religious headgear on Tuesday, when it ruled the country’s law banning full-face veils in public was legal.

The ECHR ruled that France’s ban on the wearing of the full-face veil in public does not violate the human rights of Muslim women. Judges said the law was justified on the grounds of social cohesion.

Freedom Party spokeswoman Carmen Gartelgruber said that in the “wide, conservative circles of Islamic immigration society”, the opinion prevails that women are second-class citizens. One of the many instruments for oppressing women is the burqa, she added.

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Denmark may enact French ‘burqa ban’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pia Kjærsgaard DFA ban on people wearing clothing that covers their face in public, like a burqa or niqab, may find its way to Denmark following a landmark decision at the European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday.

Judges upheld France’s burqa law, accepting the argument that veils threatened the right of citizens to live together in society. And now, several legal experts have told Berlingske newspaper that they believe a similar ban could be enacted in Denmark.

Sten Schaumburg-Müller, a law professor at Aarhus University, agreed that the French model could be adopted by Denmark. “It’s obvious that a ban specifically targeting burqas would be hopeless,” he said. “But I believe a ban similar to France’s prohibiting the covering of the face in public could be established here.”

Jacob Mchangama, the head of think-tank Justitia, also believes the law could be recycled on Danish ground. “The defining element in the French legislation is that it isn’t targeted at specific religions, but instead the motivation is to ensure social cohesion and interaction between citizens,” he said.

Pia Kjærsgaard, the DF values spokesperson, thinks a ban on face-covering dress, whether it is specifically targeting Islamic burqas or not, should be introduced in Denmark. “We can’t have women being completely covered so you can’t see their facial expressions or who you have right in front of you,” she told Berlingske.

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