REUTERS: France's official Muslim council has warned the government not to expect it to impose a planned ban on full face veils for women that legal experts argue will be unconstitutional and police predict will be unenforceable.
Mohammed Moussaoui, head of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), said his group opposed the full veil and would try to convince the tiny minority of veiled women that it was not a religious obligation and was out of place in France.
But Muslim leaders could not act as agents of the state during a six-month "mediation period" during which veiled women will be stopped and informed about the law but not fined.
The draft law, due to be passed this autumn, bans wearing full veils in public. After the mediation period, veiled women must pay a 150 euro ($182.8) fine or take "citizenship lessons" while anyone found forcing them to veil risks a 15,000 euro fine.
"It will be very hard to apply," Moussaoui told journalists Thursday. "The CFCM has said it's ready to work for this, but not as someone mandated by the state. It's the duty of society to shoulder its responsibility for the mediation."
Justice Minister Michele Alliot-Marie has said she would depend on the police, the CFCM and local civic associations to convince covered women their veils violated French values.
Police unions have warned that stopping veiled women in the street could lead to chaotic scenes and protests.
"There will be lots of refusals, it will degenerate into insult and outrage, they'll be detained and families will gather outside the police station," Yannick Danio of the Unite SGP-Police union told the newspaper Le Monde. Other critics of the ban have said radical Muslims might provoke such confrontations to extend their influence. >>> Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor, Paris | Friday, June 04, 2010
