Spain planning burqa ban
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| Sun, 06-20-2010 - 3:19pm |
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100615/lf_afp/spainreligionislamwomen_20100615163007
"Spain planning burqa ban: government
Tue Jun 15, 12:30 pm ET
MADRID (AFP) – Spain's government plans to ban the use of the Islamic burqa in public places under a proposed new law on religious freedom, the justice minister said Tuesday.
"We believe that there are things like the burqa which are hard to reconcile with human dignity and which especially pose problems of identification in public places," Francisco Caamano told reporters.
The burqa is a body-covering Islamic garment worn by women.
The new law "will have to include measures on these symbols which impede identification in public places" for reasons of "security", Caamano said.
The Socialist government announced in 2008 it was preparing a "religious freedom" law which would ensure respect for religious pluralism, in a country which is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic.
The law would also ban the display of crucifixes in schools, the newspaper El Pais said Sunday.
His remarks came a day after the mayor of Barcelona, Jordi Hereu, announced it would be the first large city in Spain to ban the use of the full-face Islamic veil in public buildings.
Two other towns in the northeastern region of Catalonia, Lerida and El Venrell, have recently imposed bans on the use of the Islamic veil in public buildings.
Two more, Tarragona and Gerona, are considering similar measures, as is Coin in the southern region of Andalucia.
Immigration from Muslim countries has soared in Spain since the 1990s, with Catalonia in particular being home to a large community of Pakistani origin.
There are now about one million Muslims among Spain's population of 47 million.
Last month, lawmakers in Belgium approved a draft law to ban the wearing of the Muslim full-face veil in public places, including streets -- creating a controversial first for Europe, although it is still subject to a senate vote.
Debate is raging in France as well, where the cabinet has approved a draft law to ban the Muslim full-face veil from public spaces, opening the way for the text to go before parliament in July."
Blessings,
Gypsy
)O(
Strong like a mountain,
Flowing like a river."
~~Tai Chi Chih
Mika Dog
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the beast, the tree, the man.
The Air shares its spirit with
all the life it supports."
--Chief Seattle
"If there are no dogs in Heaven,
then when I die I want to go where they went."
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"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress
can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
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Blessings,
Gypsy
)O(
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I am becoming less inclined all the time to support the wearing of the niqab. Although I'm usually for multiculturalism, I feel extremely... squinchy not vigorously protesting an item which is used to oppress women all over the world. In fact, I feel that I am being complicit in the thousands of so-called "honour killings" that failing to wear this form of dress provokes.
For me, it is coming down to which is more important - religious freedom, or basic human rights. At the end of the day, it's no different from my support of homosexual marriage: I can't condone institutionalized discrimination on the basis of an inborn characteristic, religious ideals be damned.
DD
Blessings,
Gypsy
)O(
Strong like a mountain,
Flowing like a river."
~~Tai Chi Chih
Mika Dog
"All things share the same breath;
the beast, the tree, the man.
The Air shares its spirit with
all the life it supports."
--Chief Seattle
"If there are no dogs in Heaven,
then when I die I want to go where they went."
~Will Rogers
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress
can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
~~Mahatma Gandhi
Blessings,
Gypsy
)O(