French mayors fear burqa ban could not be enforced

Muslims refuse to integrate

PARIS (Reuters) – Several mayors of French towns faced with growing demands from Muslim residents say they fear a proposed ban on head-to-toe burqa and niqab veils could not be enforced and might even prompt more women to cover up.

Unable to integrate

By its very nature, Islam makes it extremely difficult for Muslims to integrate. Islam means submission, and the Quran makes it clear that Muslims expect non-Muslims to submit to Islam.

Western values are not compatible with Islam. As a result, many Muslims form ghettos and engage in other forms of non-integration.

Hair-tricker sensitivities that have Muslim extremists respond to real or perceived insults with death threats, violent demonstrations, murder and terrorism, make it difficult or even impossible for non-Muslims to believe the claim that Islam is a ‘religion of peace.’ Therefore a high birthrate among Muslims, combined with high (legal and illegal) immigration figures, have Europeans and others worried about the Muslims in their midst.

• Europeans worry that Muslims cannot assimilate

• German politician blames Islam for religious violence

• Muslims are waging civil war against us, claims French police union

• Muslims not trying to fit with society, says Martin Amis

• UK: Muslim integration has come to a halt

• Sections of Muslim Britain in denial about extremism

• Almost a quarter of UK-based Muslims believe the July 7, 2005 terrorist bombings in London were justified

• The seductive beat of the militant, Islamic drum

• Europe’s angry young Muslims

• Europe fears threat from its converts to Islam

• Europe is learning a hard lesson from Muslim immigrant experience

Research resources on Islam and on Islamic Extremism

Comments & resources by ReligionNewsBlog.com

The mayors expressed their doubts to a parliamentary panel set up to study a possible ban after President Nicolas Sarkozy declared in June that full veils symbolised the subjugation of women and would “not be welcome on our territory.”

France banned Muslim headscarves in state schools in 2004 following a similar inquiry. Many mayors and teachers backed that move and the relative ease with which it was introduced has been cited by some arguing for a ban on veils covering the face.

But the hesitation among the five mayors, who experience at first hand the complexities of multicultural life in the suburbs where many Muslims live, showed banning the full veil in public would be much harder than outlawing headscarves in schools.
[…]

All mayors said some Muslim residents were increasingly making religious demands on municipal services, such as halal school meals or women-only hours in pools. In hospitals, some women refused to be treated by male doctors.

Some Muslims pressured others who did not fast during Ramadan, they said, and abused civil servants as Islamophobes when they refused to comply with demands not allowed by law.

Even the mayors worried about a ban said the National Assembly had to help local officials deal with these issues. But there was no consensus on how to do this.

“I can’t see a ban working,” said Jean-Yves Le Bouillonnec, mayor of Cachan south of Paris. “It’s extremely complex and almost completely inapplicable.”