France – Senate Passes Ban on Full Muslim Veils

France – France risked the wrath of the Islamic world on Tuesday by banning burqas and other full-body robes worn by some Muslim women, in a long-debated move that shows the depth of concern over the rise of Muslim culture in Europe.

The vote—passed primarily by the center-right party of President Nicolas Sarkozy, with most opposition Socialist Party lawmakers abstaining—came as a number of European countries are trying to figure out how to reconcile the values of modern Europe with more assertive expressions of Islamic faith.

Switzerland, for example, banned the construction of minarets after a referendum last year. Belgium and Spain are discussing measures to outlaw similar full-body cloaks. In Sweden, long known as one of Europe’s most tolerant societies, an anti-immigration party that has called for Swedish Muslims to integrate more is expected to win its first Parliamentary seat in this weekend’s elections.

In the U.S., tensions are running similarly high over plans to build an Islamic community center near the site of the World Trade Center destroyed by Muslim terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001, and over a Florida pastor’s threat to burn qurans in commemoration of the date last week.

France is facing criticism of its tolerance on other fronts: On Tuesday the European Union’s justice commissioner excoriated the Sarkozy administration for its campaign to deport Gypsies, also known as Roma, calling it a “disgrace” and saying the bloc would begin legal proceedings against the French government.

The legislation adopted Tuesday by the Senate, the upper house of the French Parliament, forbids people from concealing their faces in public. It makes no reference to Islam, and includes exceptions for people who need to cover up for work reasons, such as riot police and surgeons.

But it follows a year-long campaign by Mr. Sarkozy’s ruling party against the burqa and niqab, head-to-toe robes worn by a small number of France’s Muslim women. The burqa is “a sign of enslavement and debasement,” Mr. Sarkozy said last year.

The bill is scheduled to come into force after six months. It has already passed the lower house, the National Assembly. At the Parliament’s request, the law will be reviewed by France’s Constitutional Council before it takes effect. The Council, which reviews the constitutionality of laws after they are passed by Parliament but before they are put into force, has rejected several bills in recent years. It can censor all or part of the law deemed to contradict the nation’s bylaws.

The ban would apply to everyone in France, including visitors. Offenders face a maximum fine of €150 (about $190) and could be asked to attend courses on what the government calls “republican values.” Individuals who encourage others to ignore the ban would face tougher penalties: up to one year in prison and a maximum fine of €30,000.

Republican values also include freedom of religion, which makes it problematic to outlaw niqabs and burqas. Before Mr. Sarkozy’s government submitted the bill to lawmakers, France’s highest administrative court, the Conseil d’État, or State Council, which advises the government on proposed laws, said an outright ban on burqas might not be compatible with the country’s “international commitments on human rights.”

Most woman wearing the niqab in France are French nationals—often born to North African parents—who can be seen in suburban areas near Paris, Lyon and Lille. They say the full-body robe is a tool to concentrate on their religious faith and that the planned ban would infringe on their freedom. Some Muslim women say they would get friends to do shopping and run errands for them rather than go out in public with their faces uncovered. Niqab-clad women sometimes spotted in central Paris are usually tourists from the Persian Gulf.

Several Muslim lobby groups had urged the French Parliament not to outlaw the burqa, saying the bill amounted to a populist ploy aimed at stigmatizing France’s six million Muslims—Europe’s largest Muslim community—and distracting public opinion from other issues, such as high unemployment and sluggish economic growth.

“The government and parliament are trying to put a veil on social and economic problems,” said Mohammed Beyakhles, a member of human-rights group United Against Islamophobia.

Last year, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, a radical North-African Islamic group affiliated with al Qaeda, threatened to retaliate against France if the country banned the burqa, according to messages posted on Islamic websites. In July, AQIM killed a Frenchman it held hostage in Mali, saying it aimed to retaliate against France’s failed attempt at freeing its national.

The Eiffel Tower and the area around it were evacuated Tuesday around 9 p.m. after an anonymous caller phoned in a bomb threat, Paris police said. Police found nothing suspicious, and the area was reopened to tourists later in the evening, according to French media reports. The Saint-Michel subway station near Notre Dame Cathedral—another tourist hub—was also been briefly evacuated.

Both threats were taken seriously, police officials said, because they came a few days after the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S. and minutes after the vote of the burqa bill by the Senate.

Head-to-toe garments such as the niqab, thought to be worn by just 2,000 women in France, are seen by French critics as an affront to France’s democratic values. Some politicians have said that active citizenship requires face-to-face communication. Others say full-body robes are a means of forcing women to be submissive.

France previously banned headscarves, yarmulkes and other visible religious symbols from being worn in public schools, in the name of separation of state and religion.

UAI and other Muslim groups say they want to create a French version of Islam compatible with the nation’s secular values and dominant Catholic heritage.

In recent years, even some countries that have most strongly embraced immigration and multiculturalism, such as the U.K., have backed away somewhat. The U.K. has also become more sensitive to charges by other governments that it allowed Islamic extremists to thrive there. Though calls to ban the burqa have been almost nonexistent in the U.K., one poll earlier this year showed a majority favored it.

Last year’s Swiss vote to ban new minarets, supported by nearly 58% of voters, was a surprise in a country that has had far fewer problems with the integration of its Muslim minority than its neighbors. Political and religious leaders of Muslim countries condemned the result. Maskuri Abdillah, head of Indonesia’s biggest Muslim group, Nahdlatul Ulama, said the vote reflected “a hatred of Swiss people against Muslim communities.”

“Showing one’s face is a question of dignity and equality in our republic,” said Justice Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie during Tuesday’s debate in the Senate.

The law was passed by 246 votes to one, with most members of the opposition Socialist Party abstaining. Many Socialist Party lawmakers have said that they oppose the full-body veils, but that they would prefer to do so through dialogue and other means, not through legislation.

On Tuesday, the EU’s justice commissioner excoriated France for its campaign to deport Roma, calling it a “disgrace” and saying the bloc would begin legal proceedings against the French government.

A visibly upset Viviane Reding said the removals appeared to violate EU antidiscrimination laws, which prevent the targeting of ethnic groups. She said she was “appalled,” and, in language uncharacteristic of Brussels’s staid corridors, directly criticized two French ministers and invoked the crimes of World War II, when the Nazis sent Gypsies along with Jews to die in concentration camps. “This is a situation I would have thought Europe would not have to witness again,” she said.

France accelerated the removal of Gypsies over the summer. Mr. Sarkozy declared their encampments threats to public order and havens for criminals.

EU law grants citizens of one EU nation the right to settle freely in another, but immigrants may be required to show they can support themselves. Countries aren’t allowed to restrict this freedom of movement on account of race or nationality. French officials have insisted the deportations are proper, and that they aren’t singling out any particular ethnic group.

Mrs. Reding, who addressed reporters in Brussels on Tuesday, said she and another commissioner received such assurances from France’s immigration minister and its European affairs minister at a meeting two weeks ago.

But over the weekend, a report emerged that France’s interior ministry sent instructions to regional governors in early August that called for the clearing of hundreds of camps, “with those of Roma as a priority.” On Monday, Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux sent revised instructions, which didn’t contain any reference to Roma.

Mrs. Reding expressed fury that she had been apparently misled. “This is not a minor offense,” she said. “This is a disgrace.”

Mrs. Reding said Brussels would “have no choice” but to begin legal proceedings against France for violating the discrimination provisions of the EU’s free-movement directive.

A French foreign-ministry spokesman, Bernard Valero, expressed “astonishment” at Mrs. Reding’s statement. “We don’t think that with this type of statement…we can improve the situation of the Roma, who are at the heart of our concerns,” he said.