Monday, November 22, 2010
This is just a quick link to follow -- an "aside." These are links to interesting things that, for one reason or another, I didn't place into a full posting. Click the link to visit the full article. Go to the blog index for a regular listing of posts.
Benjamin Ismail: Ban the Burqa? France Votes Yes - 'On July 13, 2010, France's lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, approved a bill outlawing the wearing of "clothing intended to hide the face" in public spaces and slapping a fine and possible jail time on offenders;[1] on September 14, the bill was also approved by the French senate.[2] While the bill refrained from mentioning specific communities or religions, it was common knowledge that it was primarily aimed at the Muslim full body and face-concealing garments, the niqab and the burqa. Justice Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie, who presented the bill to parliament, had specifically argued that being forced to wear these Muslim garments "amounts to being cut off from society and rejecting the very spirit of the French republic that is founded on a desire to live together." President Nicolas Sarkozy was even more forthright, stating that "the burqa is not welcome in France because it is contrary to our values and contrary to the ideals we have of a woman's dignity."...'
