France, Shelve the Burka Ban: Burka Ban in France is Discriminative against Muslims

France, Shelve the Burka Ban: Burka Ban in France is Discriminative against Muslims

A French parliamentary committee is expected to recommend a partial ban on women wearing the full Islamic veil. It seems Europe is on a war path against Muslims as a people and Islam as a religion.

It was not long before France banned the Hijab and Switzerland, against all the talk of being the most tolerant society in the world, banned the building of Minarets.

It is back to old Europe double standards. Had it been a poor country, the EU would have been threatening economic sanctions and denial of EU membership. But this is France.

The other day, a proposed anti-gay bill in Uganda elicited a lot of hue and cry from all over the world with Sweden threatening to cut aid. While the proposed burka ban is equally discriminative, nobody is raising an eyebrow.

The burka ban is aimed at a minority population who are just innocently practicing their religion. The government cited the ban as an affront on French values without elaborating. A value that does not include religious tolerance and respect of minority rights does not deserve to be value.

President Nicolas Sarkozy has been quoted as saying the burka is "not welcome in France". This shows connivance to harass Muslims from the top. His party has already presented to parliament a legislation for a full ban of the burka on ‘security’ grounds.

Since the 9-11, Islam has suffered stigmatization and demonization. Every other Muslim is a potential terrorist. It doesn’t matter where you stand on the issue. Though a majority of Muslims are against Islamic fundamentalism, many countries have chosen to ignore this fact and lump them together as terrorists.

What France has done will make Muslims feel discriminated and will increasingly view their religion to be a target of harassment. These are the ingredients that religious fundamentalism are made of.

Although the western public is supportive of these discriminations, as shown by a referendum on banning minarets in Switzerland, governments are doing little to encourage tolerance.

It is a much safer world where every other person’s religion, including the minority, is respected.