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The state introduced the ban on face covering in general but not before the huge publicity on the issue of the burqah in France. This ban was meant specifically for Muslim women and anyone who thinks otherwise is deluded.

Since when did the debate on an individual's fundamental human right to freedom of religion (which encompasses the right to dress in accordance with their religious beliefs) become a vehicle for people to denigrate an entire religion?


It saddens me to read some of the comments of fellow legal professionals who rather than advocate fundamental human rights seek to curb those rights. Ironically as it is women who have chosen to don this garb, by taking away their right to wear it in public, France has discriminated against these women on the grounds of gender, religion and ethnicity.

Many of the views expressed in this forum are reflective of the mainstream media hype surrounding this topic. Hence my surprise that my educated fellow professionals would adopt tabloid rhetoric.

It is this very rhetoric that has led to targeted attacks on Muslims and Muslim women such as Nahid Almanea who was stabbed to death in Essex because she was wearing traditional Islamic clothing.

European Muslim women must now brace themselves for the tidal wave of bans that will follow in the wake of this decision. Denmark and Norway are already poised to follow France.

The decision of the European Court comes in the wake of rising attacks against Muslims in Europe. Just three days ago it was reported that an 18th Century mosque and gravestones in an adjoining cemetery were vandalized in the village of Kruszyniany in North East Poland. A pig and a patriotic symbol used during Nazi German occupation (Kotwica) was sprayed onto the mosque and the gravestones. It is one of the country's oldest Muslim houses and still used by the country's assimilated Tartar community. Similar attacks occur on a daily basis in Europe and are unreported. in the mainstream media.

Much further afield in China's north-west province of,Xinjiang Muslim students and civil servants were ordered not to fast during the religious month of Ramadan.

The point I make is where does it stop? First it's a ban on the face covering for Muslim women. What next?