Brussels, April, 30 : The lower house of the Belgian parliament approved a draft law Thursday banning the wearing of burqa in public and other types of Islamic veils, the Belga news agency reported.
However, the law criminalising Muslim women who hide their faces in public is unlikely to enter into force soon, as it still has to be approved by the upper house of parliament, the Senate.
Progress of the bill would also be wiped out if the political crisis gripping the country would lead to parliament being dissolved - an inevitable option, according to all political commentators.
Prime Minister Yves Leterme's resignation over a linguistic squabble between the French and Dutch speaking parts of the country was accepted Monday, and new elections are likely to be called either on June 6 or 13.
After the vote, the Greens said they would try to stop the bill in the Senate, by submitting a motion asking for Belgian's highest administrative court, the Conseil d'Etat, to rule on the constitutionality of the burqa ban.
A similar attempt was stilted in the chamber of deputies, as all other parties rejected it.
Belgium has come the furthest amongst EU countries in its attempts to ban burqas, full-length garments which obscure a woman's face completely, as well as hiqabs, which are face veils, usually black, that expose only a woman's eyes, covering everything else.
According to critics, both are symbols of female submission, while opponents of a ban stress that they are a religious symbol, and should be respected as such.
The draft law approved by the Belgian chamber of deputies states that anyone caught "in public places with their face completely or partly covered or masked, so that they are no longer identifiable", should be punished with a 15 to 25 euros fine ($20 to $34) and/or serve from one to seven days in prison.
The bill would also allow local authorities to slap offenders with administrative fines of up to 250 euros, in case they are let off by the criminal justice system.
Exceptions are to be made for policemen, firemen and motorcyclists wearing helmets, as well as for people taking part in public events authorised by the police.
All parties voted in favour of the measure except the SP.A, the socialist grouping from the Dutch-speaking part of the country, which abstained.
Comments
Otherwise, all the religions are having fair laws and regulations for practice. Only the thing is, Islam has more practicing Muslims then preaching Muslims. Christians have more preaching Christians then practicing Christians.
Check following links for Christians and Hindus who safeguard their modesty:-
http://www.100eyes.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/nuns.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/justinpjackson/3815303511/
http://www.singingnuns.com/pictures/singing-piano.jpg
http://www.singingnuns.com/pictures/p-consulting.jpg
http://wychwood.wdfiles.com/local--files/kit-religious/hauksbyclerics.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/_leonid/4486308488/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54236819@N00/271156670/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/494260172/
We do not have to worry about the westerners banning full veil at all. Our woman has not been forced by our men to wear veil. It’s their choice and their rights to do so. Not covering face is a good gesture for identifying a person. Islam would surely benefit in future as non-Muslim woman would not dare to commit crimes in the guise of Muslims by wearing face covering veil to hide their identity.
We have already seen the impact post 9/11. More and more people have reverted to Islam. I assume, more and more people will be flock into the fold of Islam. In fact, ISLAM is getting free advertisement all over the world.
Today every 4th person in the world is a Muslim. It is a fastest growing religion in the world. About 50 countries are Muslim majority countries in the world.
Others blame Muslims for holding on to an outdated old religious practice. On the contrary Islam is 1400 years old and today having 2nd largest population in the world. Unlike Hinduism which they say is about 6000 years old and still they practice such an old tradition. They exist as majority in just 2 countries. And, Christianity is 600 years older than Islam.
The duty of all Muslims is to show and prove to others as being true Muslims, how pious we can be. Don’t hate anybody. Show some love and mercy to all the people in the world as we know that ALLAH created ADAM & EVE and we all originate from them.
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