FRANCE: Muslims gather for Annual Congress near Paris as burqa debate rages in France

Record ID: 264781

  • Title: FRANCE: Muslims gather for Annual Congress near Paris as burqa debate rages in France
  • Date: 4th April 2010
  • Summary: LE BOURGET, NEAR PARIS, FRANCE (APRIL 3, 2010) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF FRENCH MUSLIMS ARRIVING FOR THE CONGRESS (2 SHOTS) PAN: REPRESENTATIVE OF MUSLIMS OF FRANCE HOLDING SPEECH IN CONGRESS MUSLIM WOMEN IN VEILS LISTENING TO CONGRESS FRENCH MUSLIMS LISTENING TO SPEECH SPEAKER AT CONGRESS SAYING "YES WE CAN" FRENCH MUSLIMS LISTENING TO SPEECH PEOPLE LOOKING AT STANDS IN THE EXHIBITION ARABIC-STYLE JEWELLERY / WOMAN IN VEIL LOOKING AT JEWELLERY VARIOUS OF WOMAN AT JEWELLERY STAND (SOUNDBITE) (French) MUSLIM LAMIA FEZZAZI, SAYING: "You should be with the others and work with the others, you should never be separated off, that is what Islam is about for me. That is what integration is about. In the end, yes, there are certain people who don't understand that. It's not easy to understand integration if you are French and you were born here, you are integrated by birth. But I am not French, and the others are obliged to do twice the work to integrate." VARIOUS OF MUSLIM CLOTHING FOR SALE WOMAN IN VEIL LOOKING AT CLOTHES T-SHIRT WITH SLOGAN READING 'I'm Muslim, don't panic'. (SOUNDBITE) (French) FRENCH MUSLIM MAZIA HAFIT SAYING: "That is solidarity and brotherhood, freedom for everyone. We are together in the markets, we are together at school, we are together in the underground subway, we just want enough respect for everyone to be able to do what they want in their own home." MEN LOOKING AT BOOKS IN ARABIC BOOKS IN ARABIC WOMAN IN VEIL READING BOOK (SOUNDBITE) (French) FRENCH MUSLIM PELARBE RADOUANE SAYING: "If you look at the statistics of women who wear a burqa compared to the total number of Muslims, it is an insignificant number. It is just creating a polemic from a minority, and you don't just see that with regard to women, but in all categories of human beings, men, women, Muslims or non-Muslims." WOMAN IN BURQA WALKING PAST (SOUNDBITE) (French) CONVERTED FRENCH MUSLIM PATRICK GUEBERT SAYING: "This Islamophobia which exists, it bothers us, because you encounter it in many different areas. We want society to evolve, because there are differences which are significant and which we want taking into account, but there is lots of politics, I don't know if there is an understanding between those people, but as soon as we try and raise our heads there is someone there to cut it off." MUSLIMS AT ANNUAL CONGRESS
  • Embargoed: 19th April 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVA6Y0EFI7AQL0H1LTZVUZU57OEX
  • Story Text: With debates on banning the burqa raging in France and now also Belgium, around 150,000 Muslims are expected to meet for the annual French Muslim Congress near Paris.
    According to organisers around 150,000 Muslims are expected to gather for the annual French Muslims on Saturday (April 3).
    With debates on banning the burqa raging in France and now also in Belgium, themes such as integration were the top of the agenda at the congress in the Le Bourget exhibition centre near Paris. Speeches and debates ran under the slogan "Being Muslim today".
    While debates on national identity and a possible ban on the burqa have been going on for months in France, neighbouring Belgium is now also considering a ban on the attire.
    A Belgian parliamentary committee voted Wednesday to ban the full Islamic face veil, a move that, if ratified, could make Belgium the first country to enforce such a ban. The lower house of parliament will vote on the bill on April 22 and it could enter into law in June or July.
    Some lawmakers in France, which has the largest Muslim population in Europe, have called for full Islamic veils to be banned, although a top advisory board said Tuesday that this would carry serious constitutional risks.
    The draft law proposes to criminalize wearing clothing that covers all or part of the face, including the facial veil known as the niqab and the full outer garment, or burqa, widely worn in Afghanistan.
    The French-speaking liberals, who have proposed the law, argue an inability to identify people who have hidden their faces presents a security risk and that the veil was a "walking prison" for women. Daniel Bacquelaine, the bill's chief promoter, estimated that a few hundred women in Belgium wore facial veils, adding that it was a rising trend.
    Muslims at the congress near Paris, however, say that it is the law which infringes people's rights, not the burqa, and that the discussion itself leads to further segregation rather than integration.
    "That is solidarity and brotherhood, freedom for everyone. We are together in the markets, we are together at school, we are together in the underground subway, we just want enough respect for everyone to be able to do what they want in their own home," said Mazia Hafit, who wears the veil because she wants to express her faith.
    Patrick Guebert is a French born Christian who converted to Islam a few years ago, and says he knows both sides of the debate. He says the discussion about wearing the burqa amongst the Muslim community is a very different one to the one being discussed on the national stage in France. He says France needs to face the fact that the modern community has a different face and present discussions do nothing to aid integration.
    "This Islamophobia which exists, it bothers us, because you encounter it in many different areas. We want society to evolve, because there are differences which are significant and which we want taking into account, but there is lots of politics, I don't know if there is an understanding between those people, but as soon as we try and raise our heads there is someone there to cut it off."
    The discussion is not only limited to Europe, the Canadian province of Quebec, where tension over the assimilation of immigrants is rising, plans to ban Muslim women from receiving all official services if they have their faces covered.
    Legislation unveiled by the provincial Liberal government on Wednesday would refuse education, day care and non-emergency healthcare to women wearing full face veils. The law would also apply to those working in the public sector.
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