After months of will-they-or-won’t-they, the French government has banned face-cloaking veils such as the Muslim niqab and burqa (check Religion News Service for the distinctions). The law will go into effect in six months, assuming it gets the final stamp of approval this month from France’s Constitutional Council and doesn’t get challenged before the European Court of Human Rights.
Similar measures are also being discussed in Belgium and Spain.
The Muslim religion news blogs I usually check haven’t commented on this yet — they’ve been pretty busy with the Park51 and “Burn a Koran Day” controversies — but presumably they’ll have something up soon. Here are some links:
What do you think? Check back for updates, and share your thoughts in the Comments section below.
*Click here to subscribe to Belief Beat and click here to follow Belief Beat on Twitter.
Read Previous Post