ALGIERS/RABAT, May 14, (RTRS): A French proposal to ban full face veils has stoked debate in Europe and also provoked strong reactions across the Mediterranean in North Africa, where many of France’s Muslims trace their origins. Former French colonies Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia are still tied to France by history, language and migration, so their views on the “burqa” issue could have a direct influence on how Muslims inside France react to a ban. People in North Africa are split between those who see the proposed ban — a version of which has already been approved by Belgium’s lower house of parliament — as an attack on Islam, and those who applaud Europe for defending secular values.

What is shared though by at least some people on each side of the argument is a concern that talk of a ban could be exploited by unscrupulous politicians and ratchet up tension between the authorities in Europe and Muslim communities.
“I am against this form of dress ... but we should not enact laws against it,” Khadija Riyadi, president of Morocco’s leading independent human rights group, AMDH, told Reuters.
“The right wing in France will take advantage of this law during elections when they should be addressing the situation of Muslims in France and trying to help them shrug off joblessness, poverty and racism,” she said.
The “burqa” issue has, in France and other countries, become the focus for a debate about Islam and European society.
Belgium’s lower house of parliament last month approved a bill to ban wearing the full Islamic face veil in public, though it still needs to pass the upper house.
France, home to the European Union’s largest Muslim minority, is planning to debate a draft law to ban all face veils in public. Influential politicians in Austria and the Netherlands have also advocated a ban.
For some people in North Africa, those discussions are evidence of a racist push to evict Muslims from Europe.

“It is not just a campaign but a war against our people in Europe,” said Sheikh Abdelfetah Zeraoui, a cleric in Algeria who belongs to the traditionalist Salafist strain of Islam.
“We will urge our decision makers to apply reciprocity for European women entering into Algeria. They should be wearing the Muslim veil. Otherwise we won’t let them come to Algeria.”
Just as in Europe, women in North Africa who wear full face veils — known as the niqab or burqa — are a small minority. Many women wear the hijab, which covers the head but leaves the face exposed, while a sizeable minority go uncovered.
Fatima Bougttaya, 32, comes from the working class neighbourhood of Sale, near Rabat, and wears a full burqa that covers her from head to toe, with only her hands exposed.
“It is just a racist decision to destroy Islam,” she said, when asked about the proposed French ban. “Why do they not make a law against women who exhibit their bodies in public and in front of cameras?”
Role
North Africa plays a role in helping form Muslim opinion in Europe because many people of North African origin regularly travel back to the region and the mosques they attend abroad are often run by clerics trained in Algeria, Morocco or Tunisia.
Secular-minded people in North Africa sympathise with European moves to ban the face veil, seeing an echo of their own concerns that hardline Islamists in their countries are becoming too powerful.
“The West has the right to preserve its secularism,” said Abdelrhani Moundib, a professor of sociology and anthropology at Mohammed V University in the Moroccan capital, Rabat.
“As a Moroccan Muslim, I am against the burqa. I see nothing in it that relates to Islam or chastity,” he said.
Radhia Nasraoui is a lawyer and opposition activist in the Tunisian capital who does not cover her head.
“I am against any kind of limits on personal freedom, but in this case I think the Western explanations (for banning the face veil) are logical,” she said. “How can you know who the person is who is wearing a niqab?”

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PARIS: France’s top legal advisory body has once again raised questions over the legal viability of a bill to ban full Muslim veils in public, just days before it is put before the cabinet.
The government is expected to present legislation next week to outlaw face-covering veils on the grounds that they are demeaning to women, even though experts have warned that such a prohibition could violate religious freedom.
The Council of State, which advises on the preparation of new laws and orders, earlier this year said introducing such a ban would threaten rights guaranteed under both the constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights. The Paris daily Le Figaro reported on Friday the advisory body had again come to the same conclusion after a meeting with government officials on Wednesday.
“A comprehensive and absolute ban on wearing the full veil could not have any legally unchallengeable justification and (it would) be exposed to great constitutional uncertainty,” the paper reported.
The issue has caused intense debate in France, which has the largest Muslim population in Europe and has been wrestling for years over issues relating to the integration of its various immigrant communities.
The legislation is due to be reviewed in early July by parliament, before heading to the Senate in September with the law possibly being adopted as early as autumn.

The French parliament on Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution condemning the full-face Islamic veil as an affront to the nation’s values, setting the stage for a law banning it.
The vote in the National Assembly put France on course to become the second European country after Belgium to declare the wearing of the burqa or the niqab illegal in public places.
President Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-wing UMP party and the opposition Socialists made a rare show of unity in backing the non-binding resolution that declared the veil “contrary to the values of the republic.”
“The full veil challenges the values that we share and the very principles according to which we live together,” Justice Minister Michele Alliot-Marie told the assembly ahead of the vote.
“The government is determined to take all means to combat these practices which are contrary to the values of the republic,” she said.
The non-binding measure was approved by a vote of 434 to 0 in the 577-seat National Assembly, although about 30 Communist deputies had earlier walked out of the chamber in protest.
Next week, Sarkozy’s cabinet will examine a draft bill that could impose fines on women who wear the full veil and threaten with imprisonment men who force their wives or daughters to cover themselves.
That bill will then go before parliament in July where it will face some resistance over proposals to make it illegal for reasons of security to wear face-covering veils anywhere in public.
The Socialist opposition is calling on the government to restrict the ban to state institutions to avoid a court challenge that would derail the legislation.

“We fear that you will go too far,” Socialist Jean Glavany told the justice minister. “We must defend the republic with wisdom and perspicacity.”
Debate on the burqa ban has prompted warnings that it could stoke tension in a country that is home to Europe’s biggest Muslim minority, estimated at between five and six million, and where Islam is the number two religion.
Police carried out a full security sweep of parliament ahead of the vote, using sniffer dogs to search the chamber and adjoining corridors, and also securing rooftops. After declaring the burqa “unwelcome” in officially secular France, Sarkozy last month moved to support a total ban despite warnings from the State Council, a top administrative body, that such a move may be unconstitutional.
Before joining his fellow communists, deputy Alain Bocquet denounced the measure as a ploy to woo the far-right and warned that a ban will lead France to “division.”

In the resolution, lawmakers declared that “radical practices which violate the dignity and equality between men and women, such as the wearing of the full veil, are contrary to the values of the republic.”
Parliament “deems it necessary that all useful means be put in place to ensure the protection of women who are subjected to violence and pressure and in particular are forced to wear the full veil,” it said.
Fewer than 2,000 women wear the head-to-toe veil, according to the interior ministry.
The head of France’s Council of the Muslim Faith, a government body created to promote inter-faith relations, warned that the veil ban risks leaving many Muslims feeling like outcasts.
“Rather than enacting a law barring women from expressing their malaise, we should think about what prompted them to want to cover themselves,” said Mohamed Moussaoui, who met lawmakers ahead of the vote.
French politicians have said the law will also apply to wealthy tourists from the Middle East and the Gulf who are often seen fully veiled in luxury shops on the Paris boulevards.