After France, Belgium is now mired in an emotionally-charged debate on whether to ban Islamic headscarves and other overt religious symbols in state schools.
Inspired by a planned French law, two Belgian senators have sponsored similar legislation to combat what they say is Islamic sexism.
"The veil amounts to oppression of the individual in the name of religion," said one of the senators, socialist Anne-Marie Lizin.
French President Jacques Chirac called last month for a ban on religious insignia in schools following months of fierce debate over whether to allow Islamic headscarves in state schools, which are officially secular.
The draft law, which parliament is likely to pass next month, has drawn protest across the Muslim world and in France.
Belgium has no such laws at the moment. But school boards have the right to take their own action, a right exercised recently by the Athenee Royal high school in Brussels, which has a high number of immigrant pupils.
"We have changed our rules to forbid the wearing of headscarves in the school because the situation was no longer tenable," said the school's administrator, Francis Lees.
"Some pupils have since left the school, but we have been able to break out of our ghetto," he said.
A French teacher of Moroccan origin at the school said he was convinced that if Belgium passed an anti-headscarf law, "most of the girls would conform with it."
"They're not going to play with their futures for the sake of that. We shouldn't exaggerate the influence of Islamists," he said.
But in Belgium's 350,000-strong Muslim community (out of a total population of 10 million), the debate has aroused fierce passions.
Following an appeal from a radical Muslim political group, the Party for Citizenship and Prosperity, about 100 Belgian Muslims were expected to take part in a demonstration in Paris this weekend against the proposed French legislation.
"We want to denounce an attack on fundamental liberties and affirm our solidarity with our European colleagues," said a party offi-cial, Rachid Zegzaoui.
He said the party would organize a similar demonstration in Brus-sels in the weeks ahead.
Several Muslim groups said in a joint statement that a ban on Islamic headscarves and veils "would deprive Muslim citizens of the pleasure of exercising their civic rights."
The Belgian government is divided over the senators' initiative.
Interior Minister Patrick Dewael has come out in support of a ban on Islamic veils and other overt religious symbols in schools and other state institutions, such as hospitals and government offices.
But the minister for public functions and social integration, Marie Arena, has called the proposals "radical and aggressive."
The issue is unlikely to recede with local elections in June giving an opportunity for backers of the headscarf bill to press their case.
The anti-immigrant, far-right Vlaams Blok party is hoping to do particularly well in the forthcoming ballot, having gained three seats for a total of 18 in the national parliament in a general election last May.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS