Ever since its revolution 220 years ago, France’s motto has been “liberté, egalité, fraternité” which more or less translates into English as “liberty, equality, brotherhood.” It is a motto the French take seriously. So it may come as a bit of a shock to some that French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants the burqa banned. It seems like an attack on individual liberty — in this case the freedom of Muslim women in France to choose to cover their faces and not be seen.

This is not the first time that politicians in Europe have seized on the burqa. Four years ago, there was a move in the Netherlands to ban women wearing it in public but a change in the government coalition in 2007 saw the plans being dropped although there is still talk of a ban in schools and by public officials.
In Denmark, judges are not allowed to wear it when in court, nor indeed any religious or political symbols including crosses and skullcaps — although the decision, made last year, has to be seen as specifically anti-Muslim one, coming as a result of pressure from the openly anti-Muslim Danish People’s Party. And, of course, in France, the wearing of any overtly religious clothing or religious symbols is banned in schools and public buildings.
In both the Dutch and Danish cases, the issue is a racist one. Right-wing politicians have used the burqa to whip up anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant sentiment. This is not the case in France, where secularism is a pillar of political culture. President Sarkozy, who has called the burqa an offense to French ideas of women’s dignity and a sign of subservience not of religion, may not be trying to outflank the far-right National Front as there is across-the-board opposition to the burqa. A parliamentary commission, instigated by a communist, has been set up to investigate the use of the burqa in France, home to the largest Muslim community in west Europe — five million and growing — and it has the backing of the Rector of the Paris Mosque, the most authoritative and respected Muslim in the country.
The French government will nonetheless have to tread carefully. Despite its much publicized plans to reach out to French Muslims following the suburban riots two years ago triggered by the death of two teenage sons of African immigrants, many still feel as marginalized as they did before the disturbances. There will be those — beyond France as well — who will rail against any burqa ban as a racist and anti-Muslim move by a right-wing government in a country riddled with Islamophobia and with a history of colonial oppression of Arabs. There will certainly be those who will see a ban as a political opportunity for themselves.
But if France must tread carefully, so must those who would criticize. There has to be respect for cultural traditions. It is right and proper, too, that Muslims, when in France or any other non-Muslim country, accept the laws there — providing that those laws do not impinge on their faith, nor do they stop them from exercising their beliefs. Banning the burqa does just that.
(Arab News Editorial)