A slap at Spain and France, a vote against their own security (you never know who or what might be under the thing), and a step toward Eurabia. "Council of Europe votes against ban on burka," from the Telegraph, June 24:
MPs from 47 countries have unanimously voted against a general ban on the wearing of the burka in public.The Parliamentary Assembly of Europe's human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe, passed a resolution warning that if governments imposed such a ban they would be denying women ''who genuinely and freely desire to do so'' their right to cover their faces.
But while the Assembly opposed a general ban, it left the door open for targeted laws against the burka, pointing out that legal restrictions may be justified ''for security purposes, or where the public or professional functions of individuals require their religious neutrality, or that their face can be seen''.
The vote came in Strasbourg amid continuing controversy in France over efforts to introduce a general burka ban.
The Muslim Council of Britain has attacked President Nicolas Sarkozy as ''patronising and offensive'' after he declared: ''The burka is not a sign of religion, it is a sign of subservience. We cannot accept to have in our country women who are prisoners behind netting, cut off from all social life, deprived of identity.''...
However, the parliamentarians added: ''No woman should be compelled to wear religious apparel by her community or family. Any act of oppression, sequestration or violence constitutes a crime that must be punished by law.''
The resolution was part of a report on Islam, Islamism and Islamophobia, which also called on European governments to work to educate Muslim women, their families and communities on their human rights and to encourage them to take part in ''public and professional life''.
It also called on Switzerland to repeal as soon as possible its general ban on the construction of minarets, which it described as discriminatory.
Of course!
The foreign minister understands what should be abundantly clear across Europe: Aiding and abetting the segregation of a class that would fancy itself too "special" for civil law achieves the opposite of integration. "Støre bans Sharia councils," by Michael Sandelson for The Foreigner, June 24:
Jonas Gahr Støre, Labour's (Ap) Foreign Minister, has totally discounted the idea of establishing a Sharia council in Norway. He says a parallel court system is out of the question, arguing it does nothing to help integration.
Discrimination
"I believe desegregation is our society's biggest social challenge. We must have a common fundament [sic!] and a set of values anchored in universal principles of law if we are to succeed," he tells Aftenposten.
According the paper, Norwegian Imams and the National Courts Administration have already said they're open to the idea of establishing a council for civil matters such as divorce, inheritance, and domestic violence.
You can't spell "Norwegian" without "No."
Støre, head of Labour's integration panel that's to present its report at next year's Party Conference, argues there's no place for a parallel system that makes judgements based on Islamic law. His Party has also given the principle the thumbs-down.
"We're a constitutional state based on democracy, freedom of speech and religion, as well as equal opportunities and status," says Støre.
Norwegian law forbids cultural traditions that discriminate against women, such as forced marriage and female circumcision.
"Practices not part of Norwegian culture shouldn't be able to obtain legitimacy from alternative court systems," he says.
Those boundaries make the ensuing multicultural boilerplate slightly less discouraging:
Challenge
"[But] increased diversity means our society will need both established and new conflict management methods. Many within the immigrant communities can help to solve disputes at a low level. I welcome this."
Støre also hopes the integration panel's work will help open up the public desegregation debate, as well as challenging traditional fears of raising the matter in a non-discriminatory way.
"We must take the concerns of immigrants and ancestral Norwegians seriously, for example when an 80-year-old ethnic Norwegian woman fears the neighbourhood is changing, or the anxiety a 30-year-old Somali single mother experienced during her encounters with things that are purely Norwegian."
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