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Editorial Posted On Tuesday, July 21, 2009 | In France there is calm for the moment till the recommendations of the Parliamentary Special Commission comes out with its recommendations on whether more stringent anti-religious symbols and dress Act (the Veil) should be enacted or should there be some relaxations in the existing laws concerning the Veil-KC Mouli
Even as the French Parliamentary Committee on Burqa and Naqab (the Veil) among muslim women in France is in the data collection and opinion survey stage and is expected to submit its recommendations by the end of the year, Indian muslims in France as well as muslims in India were definitely agitated.
Meanwhile the war of words between the supporters and opposers of the Veil is not only going on specially in the context of France but also the manifestation of the simmering anger and pain among the muslim world including India on the French President Sarkozy's observation about the Veil and muslim women is clearly visible and loudly audible.
It all began with the French President Nicolas Sarkozy's recent observation that "Burqa a sign of subservience will not be welcome on French territory". This has caused an uproar more in India rather than in the Islamic world. This is because in India religion is omnipresent and people take it a pride in displaying religious symbols and neither the State nor the civil society had ever questioned the propriety of such ostentation. In the name of secularism successive Indian Governments could not as yet differentiate State from Religion nor had the courage to ban display and exhibition of such manifestations in State affairs. Every government function in India is either preceded or followed by religious ceremonies.
Leave alone the muslim clerics, even hard-core left wing muslim women activists were found fumbling and mild in their reaction stating that in the present day society everyone should have a choice to practise his/her religion and culture which includes dress patterns. The genesis of this burqa problem is that with France becoming the only country in Europe to outlaw any ostentatious display of religious symbols (that includes dress patterns) by public servants or students in State-run Institutions, Islamic head-scarf and Sikh turban became illegal according to the French Law. This was because of the goof up by the Stasi Commission which simply ignored the tiny Sikhs and of course large muslim communities on the French land. This has resulted in barring these communities from admissions to State-run educational institutions and government employment in France. Yet France is home for Europe's largest muslim population roughly 4.5 million and is the country's second most-practised religion after catholicism.
US President Barak Obama's June 4th Cairo speech added more fuel to the French fire when he exhorted the Western countries "to avoid dictating what clothes a muslim woman should wear". It is "plain hostility towards religion under pretence of liberalism" he added.
Meanwhile the North African branch of Al-Qaeda reacting on the expected lines threatened French life and property as a protest against Sarkozy's statement. Most muslim women in France read Sarkozy's observation as a stigmatization of their community. French intelligenstia and European thinkers also feel that any official ban on Burqa (the Veil) in France may damage France's republican heritage.
The issue is still hot in France as well as in all the Arab world, other Islamic countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Malaysia and predominantly muslim countries like India. The debate has split Europeans and Americans too. In France however there is calm for the moment till the recommendations of the Parliamentary Special Commission comes out with its recommendations on whether more stringent anti-religious symbols and dress Act (the Veil) should be enacted or should there be some relaxations in the existing laws concerning the Veil and such other things of various other religious communities in France. Till then the burqa war in the west, specially in France, will continue.
E:mail:- kcmouli37@gmail.com.
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Tuesday, February 09, 2010