Dati: Burka 'Not a Religious Expression'
Dati: 'The burka does not correspond to our values'. Photograph: BBC
BCC: The former French justice minister, Rachida Dati, has condemned the wearing of the burka, saying that it "does not correspond" to European values.

Ms Dati, the first person of North African descent to serve in the French cabinet, is in the UK to visit the Justice Secretary Jack Straw's Blackburn constituency.

In a rare interview, she told Today programme reporter Zubeida Malik that "it's important to remind what helps citizens live together and have a common destiny and living together and having a common destiny means having principles and values in common.

"And it's true that the burka" - the wearing of which is now the subject of heated debate in France - "does not correspond neither to our values nor to our principles whether French or British and not even European. So it is important to say no to this expression that is not a religious expression."

Ms Dati rejected suggestions that banning the burka and other face veils would make them more popular. "We have to remember that often women who wear the burka are either doing it out of ignorance or others are motivated by an activism linked to the creation of a new identity," she said.

"And to those for whom it represents the expression of an identity, it is important to say that in our countries there can't be any confrontation of identities. There is one single identity based upon common values and principles shared by our countries."

Rachida Dati was a lawyer when she was named as French justice minister by President Sarkozy in 2007. She was the first person of North African origin to hold a top government post in Paris.

Born in 1965 to a Moroccan mason father and an Algerian mother, Ms Dati was one of 12 children raised in humble circumstances. Aged 16, she started working as a carer in a private clinic, looking after her younger sisters and brothers after her mother's death. >>> | Friday, February 19, 2010

Paris: Männer in Burka rauben Postfiliale aus
DIE PRESSE: Zwei mit Ganzkörperschleiern Maskierte erbeuteten unerkannt 4500 Euro. Erst als sie die Waffen zogen und Geld verlangten wurde offenbar, dass es sich nicht um Frauen handelt.

Äußerst ungewöhnlich getarnt haben zwei Männer in der Nähe von Paris eine Postfiliale überfallen. Statt ihr Gesicht mit der in Gangsterkreisen üblichen Sturmhaube zu verdecken, hüllten sich die Räuber komplett in muslimische Ganzkörperschleier. Erst als sie eine Waffe zogen, bemerkten viele der Postkunden, dass es sich bei den beiden Burka-Trägern nicht um muslimische Frauen handelte. >>> DiePresse.com | Sonntag, 07. Februar 2010

Armed Robbers Disguised in Burkhas Carry Out £4,000 Raid
MAIL ONLINE: Armed robbers disguised in burkhas have escaped with thousands in cash after carrying out a post office raid in Paris.

The crime – which took place yesterday in the suburb of Athis Mons – comes following calls for the controversial garments to be banned.
 
President Nicolas Sarkozy himself has described them as a ‘security risk’, saying they provide the perfect cover for criminals or terrorists.

Now those fighting for the ban claim the robbery – which is the first of its kind in France – shows how useful the burkha is as a disguise.

It took place at around 10.30am, when two robbers carrying pistols entered the main post office bank building in Athis Mons, which has a large immigrant Muslim community, mainly from North Africa.

Once inside they ordered a bank clerk to take out the equivalent of £4,000 in cash by pointing a pistol at him. After ten minutes they fled to a nearby car park and escaped. >>> Peter Allen | Sunday, February 07, 2010

Ils braquent la poste en burqa
lePARISIEN.fr: Deux hommes, dissimulés sous une burqa, ont braqué le bureau de poste d’Athis-Mons (Essonne) pour un butin de 4 500 € .

Si le braquage n’était pas très juteux, le costume était insolite. Hier matin, vers 10 h 30, deux personnes vêtues de burqa et de baskets se sont attaquées à un bureau de poste à Athis-Mons (Essonne). Les malfrats sont repartis avec un butin estimé à 4 500 €. « J’ai d’abord cru que c’étaient des femmes, raconte Sonia, un témoin de la scène.

Je les ai vus traverser la route. Ils étaient grands et baraqués. Et en les voyant courir sous leur burqa noire, avec leurs baskets, j’ai compris que c’étaient des hommes. » >>> Céline Carez et Florence Mereo | Dimanche 07 Février 2010

Ban That Bloody Burqah!
THE TELEGRAPH: The head of President Nicolas Sarkozy's Right-wing UMP party on Tuesday said he would continue to push for a total ban of face-covering Islamic veils in France.

Jean-François Copé's proposal for a full ban was backed by 190 MPs but rejected by a cross-party commission, which handed a list of proposals to parliament recommending a ban of the burka or niqab in state facilities but not in the street.

The ban would apply to public places, including all schools, hospitals, public transport and government offices. It described the face-covering veil as an unacceptable "challenge to our republic".

However, after six months of hearings, the commission stopped short of outlawing the veil in the streets, in shopping centres and other public venues, due to doubts about the constitutionality of such a move.

Mr Copé, however, dismissed the idea a full ban was unconstitutional.
"It is incomprehensible to say you can't wear (the full veil) in hospitals but can in bakeries," he told the Daily Telegraph.

His stance is backed by the majority of French: a poll last week showed 57 per cent are in favour of a total ban.

The cross-party report recommends passing a parliamentary resolution, paving the way to a law making it illegal for anyone to appear with their face covered at state-run institutions and on public transport, for security reasons.

Niqab-clad women could be denied services at the post office, or other government buildings, as well as access to a work visa, residency papers or French citizenship, the report said.

Parliament is expected to pass a resolution after regional elections in March, with a law possible "by the end of the year", according to one commission member. France moves closer to Muslim face veil ban >>> Henry Samuel in Paris | Tuesday, January 26, 2010

LE TEMPS: France : Alerte contre les «barbares» en burqa : Un rapport parlementaire préconise des mesures pour compliquer la vie des femmes portant le voile intégral. Dans l’espoir, à terme, d’éliminer le phénomène >>> Sylvain Besson | Mercredi 27 Janvier 2010

Bravo for Nico! Nicolas Sarkozy Backs a Ban on the Full Muslim Veil
TIMES ONLINE: Curbs on wearing the full Muslim veil come a step closer in France today with a report that will call for a ban on the dress in post offices, universities, hospitals and state-owned premises, as well as public transport.

Last night President Sarkozy was due to endorse the proposals, to be made by an all-party commission. Last week he called the niqab, the form of veil worn in France, “contrary to our values and to the ideals we have of women’s dignity”. Parliament is expected to act on the proposals in the spring.

If they become law women with covered faces would be refused public services such as transport, university classes and benefits. >>> Charles Bremner in Paris | Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Ban That Bloody Burqah! Ban on Burqas Receives Strong Public Support in France
THE SUNDAY TIMES: A report drawn up by French MPs will this week call for a ban on Afghan-style burqas and other garments that cover a woman’s face.

The proposal has strong public support. According to an opinion poll by Ipsos for the magazine Le Point, 57% of voters favour a ban while 37% are opposed.

The recommendations of a parliamentary commission, to be published on Tuesday, are expected to include a bar on wearing full veils on public transport and in schools, hospitals and public-sector offices including post offices. The commission is thought likely to call for a total ban after further consultation.

President Nicolas Sarkozy launched a debate on veils last June, telling a special sitting of both houses of parliament that they were “not welcome” in France. He said last week the full veil was “contrary to our values and to the ideals we have of women’s dignity”. >>> John Follain in Paris | Sunday, January 24, 2010

Paris Imam Backs France's Burqa Ban
THE TELEGRAPH: Hassen Chalghoumi, whose mosque stands in a northern Paris suburb where many Muslims live, said women who wanted to cover their faces should move to Saudi Arabia or other Muslim countries where that was a tradition.

A French imam active in Muslim dialogue with Jews has backed a law against full face veils, parting ways with most Muslim leaders in France urging parliamentarians not to vote for a planned "burqa ban."

France's National Assembly is likely to pass a resolution soon denouncing full veils and to try in coming months to hammer out a law forbidding them, deputies say.

President Nicolas Sarkozy calls the veils an affront to women's dignity unwelcome in France, home to about five million Muslims. Fewer than 2,000 women wear the veils, known here as burqas although most are Middle Eastern niqabs showing the eyes.

"Yes, I am for a legal ban of the burqa, which has no place in France, a country where women have been voting since 1945," Hassen Chalghoumi, 36, told the daily Le Parisien.

Chalghoumi, who has received death threats for his promotion of dialogue with Jews, said that full face veils had no basis in Islam and "belong to a tiny minority tradition reflecting an ideology that scuttles the Muslim religion."

"The burqa is a prison for women, a tool of sexist domination and Islamist indoctrination," said Chalghoumi, whose mosque stands in Drancy, site of a wartime camp where Jews were detained before transport to Nazi concentration camps.

Chalghoumi criticised some of the tougher measures proposed by conservative politicians, such as imposing fines or cutting off child support payments for veiled women. >>> Sophie Taylor, for Reuters in Paris | Friday, January 22, 2010

THE TELEGRAPH: Vicki Woods just doesn’t get the idea of a ban on the burqah, does she? She doesn’t seem to understand that these Muslimatoon (Arabic plural of the singular Muslimah) are trying it on. She criticizes the French for wanting to introduce a ban, but has no better suggestions of her own with which to replace the proposed measure. Of course, the French government could always decide to deport these women who won’t integrate. Maybe Vicki Woods would prefer the French to legislate for that! >>>

Burqas in Public Could Be Banned in France
BBC: Women in France could soon be banned from wearing a muslim veil that covers their face in public places.

The BBC understands that a parliamentary commission, which has been taking evidence for six months, will decide that wearing the burqa or niqab should be restricted.

Gavin Hewitt reports. Watch BBC video >>> | Thursday, January 21, 2010

Debating the Burqa Ban Debate
BBC: French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy and former London Mayor Ken Livingston join Jeremy Paxman to discuss differences between how France and the UK publicly debate religion and the wearing of religious apparel after French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for the burqa to be banned. Watch BBC Newsnight video >>> | Thursday, June 25, 2010

L'Assemblée nationale va demander l'interdiction de la burqa en France
Une femme portant le voile intégral, qui dissimule le corps et le visage, à Marseille en juin 2009. Crédits photo : Le Monde
LE MONDE: L'Assemblée nationale va demander officiellement que le port du voile intégral soit "prohibé sur le territoire de la République", selon un projet de proposition de résolution de la mission parlementaire.

L'Assemblée "affirme que le voile intégral est contraire aux valeurs de la République que sont la liberté, la fraternité et la dignité de la personne humaine", et "demande que cette pratique soit prohibée sur le territoire de la République", selon ce texte qui sera finalisé la semaine prochaine, lors de la remise des conclusions de la mission parlementaire sur le port du voile intégral. >>> LeMonde.fr avec AFP | Mercredi 20 Janvier 2010

France Gets Tough on the Burqah
MAIL ONLINE: Women who wear the burka in France should be banned from using public transport or receiving state handouts, a government spokesman has said.

The call came just one day after the head of President Nicolas Sarkozy's party, the UMP, said that Muslim women wearing full face veils should not be granted French nationality.

Now UMP party spokesman Frederic Lefebvre has demanded any woman breaking a proposed law making the garment illegal should be 'deprived of her rights'.

He said: 'When you don't respect your responsibilities, you should not have access to any benefits.

'The rights and responsibilities of citizens in France are important.

'When you ignore rules that make things illegal, like a ban on the burka, you have have some of your rights taken away, like the right to state benefits or using public transport.'

Ruling UMP party chief Xavier Bertrand said on Sunday that women who wear burkas and niqabs should not be allowed to acquire French citizenship.

He said: 'The full veil is simply a prison for women who wear it and will make no one believe a woman wearing it wants to integrate.'

President Sarkozy has branded Islamic face veils 'a sign of debasement that imprison women' and said they are not welcome in his country.

As the national debate raged on Islamic headwear, Sarkozy said last week he wants MPs to vote on a total ban on all full face veils in France. Ban women wearing the burka from benefits and public transport, demands French government spokesman >>> Ian Sparks | Tuesday, January 19, 2010

UKIP Woos White Working Class with Call for Total Ban on Burkas
My comment on this article in The Times today:

Ms Jagger, this is not a class issue; rather, this is an issue of national identity and preserving one's culture and values. The burqah does not belong here. The practice has its roots in the desert. It is actually not Islamic, even though it has come to represent Islamic fundamentalism. Its actual roots lie in the class structure of Saudi Arabia! Upper class women in Arabia, the city-dwellers, wore them for two main reasons: to protect the skin from the hot sun in the desert (pale skin on women is prized there even to this day); and as the hallmark of a lady who didn't have to do manual labour, as the poorer classes did.

There is therefore absolutely no reason for wearing them in the United Kingdom. They were never really a religious duty anyway. The prophet of Islam called for modesty. One doesn't have to cover oneself from head to foot to preserve one's modesty! – © Mark

TIMES ONLINE: The UK Independence Party is to call for a ban on the burka and the niqab — the Islamic cloak that covers women from head to toe and the mask that conceals most of the face — claiming they affront British values. The policy, which a number of European countries are also debating, is an attempt by UKIP to broaden its appeal and address the concerns of disaffected white working-class voters.

UKIP would be the first national party to call for a total ban on burkas, though the far-Right BNP believes they should be banned from schools.

Lord Pearson of Rannoch, the leader of UKIP, said yesterday: “We are taking expert advice on how we could do it. It makes sense to ban the burka — or anything which conceals a woman’s face — in public buildings. But we want to make it possible to ban them in private buildings. It isn’t right that you can’t see someone’s face in an airport.”

He explained that UKIP wanted to bring to the fore the issue of the increasing influence of Sharia in Britain: “We are not Muslim bashing, but this is incompatible with Britain’s values of freedom and democracy.”

Nigel Farage, the former UKIP party leader, will announce tomorrow that the party believes the fabric of the country is under threat from Sharia and that forcing women to conceal their identity in public is not consistent with traditional Britishness.

UKIP believes that the burka and the niqab have no basis in Islam, are a threat to gender equality, marginalise women and endanger the public safety because terrorists could use them to hide their identity. >>> Suzy Jagger, Politics and Business Correspondent | Saturday, January 16, 2010

France Set on Banning Muslim Niqab in Public
THE GLOBE AND MAIL: Sarkozy's party, opposition in unison about need to curb use of ‘prison for women,' but disagree about how to do so without violating constitutional rights

A bruising battle is shaping up in France over whether fully veiled Muslim women should be banned from appearing on the street or in any other public setting, a proposal already endorsed by many of President Nicolas Sarkozy's rightwing allies.

The fight is not over whether the face-covering niqab , or burka , as it is commonly called in France, should be tolerated.

Mr. Sarkozy has said the head-to-toe garment is unwelcome on French soil. The leader of his party bloc in the National Assembly called it a “negation of life in society.” The spokesman for the Socialist opposition condemned it as “a prison for women,” a description only slightly less damning than that of his Communist colleague who termed it “ambulatory prison.”

Five months after setting out to ban the burka , French politicians are with few exceptions divided only over how to go about it without violating constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression.

The Socialists' spokesman, Benoît Hamon, said on Wednesday that while his party opposes the niqab , it has decided that an outright ban would be unenforceable. But a number of leftwing deputies have indicated they will refuse to follow the party line if a ban comes up for a vote.

Several members of Mr. Sarkozy's party have said they plan to introduce a bill to outlaw the wearing of the niqab in the next few days.

Jean-François Copé, the party's parliamentary leader, called the garment a threat by radical Islamists to the nation's security. “Extremists are testing the republic by encouraging a practice they know to be contrary to the essential principles of our country,” he said.

Women wearing the head-to-toe covering, which leaves just a narrow opening for the eyes, are a rare sight in France. The French domestic intelligence agency said late last year it has even counted them, and found precisely 367 niqab-wearers in a country with a Muslim population estimated at close to six million.

Still, the garment has become a red flag, feeding a more generalized unease over the visibility of Islam that has dominated a continuing government-sponsored debate on France's national identity. >>> Susan Sachs | Wednesday, January 06, 2010

France: The Banning of the Burqah


Inside Story: The Burqah in France

Signs of Enlightenment! France: Fines for Wearing the Burqah
MAIL ONLINE: Women who wear Islamic veils in public will be liable to a fine of more than £700 under strict new laws being formulated in France.

The amount could be doubled for Muslim men who force their wives or other female members of their family to cover their faces.

Jean-Francois Cope, president of Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling UMP Party in the French parliament, said the new legislation was intended to protect the 'dignity' and 'security' of women.

He is set to file the draft law in the National Assembly after Mr Sarkozy said veils are 'not welcome' as they intimidate and alienate non-Muslims, especially in a secular country like France.

'We want a ban in public areas,' said Mr Cope, making clear that the veil would not be allowed in public buildings, nor on the streets of France, as it encourages extremism.

Mr Cope said: 'The wearing of the burkha will be subject to a fine, probably of the 4th class, which is to say 750 euros.'

He said the fine would apply to 'all people on the public street whose face is entirely covered'. Women who wear burkhas and niqabs on the street in France face fines of more than £700 >>> Peter Allen | Thursday, January 07, 2010

France Socialist Party Opposes Burka Ban
BBC: France's opposition Socialists have come out against a law banning the burka - even though they remain firmly opposed to the garment.

The announcement comes ahead of a parliamentary report on the issue that is due out later this month.

Last summer, French MPs held hearings on whether to ban the Muslim veil, which covers the body from head to toe.

President Nicolas Sarkozy had said the burka was "not welcome" in France, home to Europe's largest Muslim population.

Mr Sarkozy has left open the idea of introducing legislation to ban the burka.

While the Socialist Party opposes the wearing of the burka, it was "not favourable" to a legal ban, said party spokesman Benoit Hamon. >>> | Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Muslim Men Who Force Their Wives to Wear the Burkha Are Not Welcome in France, Says Justice Minister
MAIL ONLINE: Muslim men who force their wives to wear a burkha are not welcome in France, the country's justice minister has said.

Michelle Alliot-Marie said husbands making their wives wear a full body coverings did not 'share the nation's values'.

They would have their citizenship requests rejected, she said.

Her remarks come as a French government committee is considering whether to make it illegal to wear burkhas and niqabs on the streets of France.

The burkha is a full-body covering worn largely in Afghanistan with a mesh screen over the eyes, and the niqab is a full-body veil with slits for the eyes.

President Nicolas Sarkozy called them 'a sign of subservience and debasement that imprisoned women', saying they were not not welcome in France.

The country's immigration minister Eric Besson described them as 'an affront to national identity'.

Women's rights groups and left wing MPs went even further, describing them as a 'walking coffin'.

Mrs Alliot-Marie said today she would await the findings of the commission on the burkha, due later this month.

But she added: 'There are still a certain number of basics on which we must stand firm.

'The wearing of the niqab or burkha is a problem that affects our ability to live together, the values of the republic and in particular human dignity.

'For instance, someone who would be seeking French citizenship and whose wife wears the full veil is someone who would not appear to be sharing the values of our country.

'Therefore in a case like that one, we would reject his request.' >>> Ian Sparks | Thursday, December 10, 2009

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: Wearing the Burqa Is Neither Islamic Nor Socially Acceptable
THE INDEPENDENT: To deny face-to-face interaction is to deny our shared humanity

I am a Shia Muslim and I abhor the burqa. I am offended by the unchallenged presumption that women covering their heads and bodies and now faces are more pious and true than am I.

Islam in all its diverse forms entitles believers to a personal relationship with Allah – it cuts out middlemen, one reason its appeal extended to so many across the world. You can seek advice from learned scholars and imams, but they cannot come between your faith and the light of God. Today control freaks who claim they have a special line to the Almighty have turned our world dark. Neo-conservative Islamic codes spread like swine flu, an infection few seem able to resist.

The disease is progressive. It started 20 years ago with the hijab, donned then as a defiant symbol of identity, now a conscript's uniform. Then came the jilbab, the cloak, fought over in courts when schoolgirls were manipulated into claiming it as an essential Islamic garment. If so, hell awaits the female leaders of Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Soon, children as young as four were kitted up in cloaks and headscarves ("so they get used to it, and then later wear the full thing," said a teacher to me who works at a Muslim girls' school) and now for the graduation gown, a full burqa, preferably with dark glasses.

White liberals frame this sinister development in terms of free choice and tolerance. Some write letters to this paper: What is the problem? It is all part of the rich diversity of our nation. They can rise to this challenge, show they are superhuman when it comes to liberty and forbearance.

They might not be quite so sanguine if their own daughters decided to be fully veiled or their sons became fanatic Islamicists and imposed purdah in the family. Such converts are springing up in Muslim families all over the land. Veils predate Islam and were never an injunction (modesty of attire for men and women is). Cultural protectionism has long been extended to those who came from old colonies, in part to atone for imperial hauteur. Redress was necessary then, not now. >>> Yasmin Alibhai-Brown | Monday, July 13, 2009

Anti-Dhimmitude! St Mary's Catholic College Turns Away Muslim Teacher Wearing Veil
TIMES ONLINE: A teacher was barred from joining students on a visit to a Roman Catholic sixth-form college because she refused a request to remove her Muslim veil.

She was accompanying two teenage girls on an open day to see if they wanted to study for their A levels at St Mary’s College, in Blackburn. The town is in the constituency of Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, who once said that he preferred Muslim women not to wear veils that covered their faces.

The teacher and students were from the Tauheedul Islam Girls’ High School. A spokesman for St Mary’s said that the request was made because veils were against school policy. The two pupils agreed to take off their veils but the teacher declined and left. >>> Russell Jenkins | Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Op-Ed Contributor: Ban the Burqa
THE NEW YORK TIMES: NEW YORK — I am a Muslim, I am a feminist and I detest the full-body veil, known as a niqab or burqa. It erases women from society and has nothing to do with Islam but everything to do with the hatred for women at the heart of the extremist ideology that preaches it.

We must not sacrifice women at the altar of political correctness or in the name of fighting a growingly powerful right wing that Muslims face in countries where they live as a minority.

As disagreeable as I often find French President Nicolas Sarkozy, he was right when he said recently, “The burqa is not a religious sign, it is a sign of the subjugation, of the submission of women. I want to say solemnly that it will not be welcome on our territory.” It should not be welcome anywhere, I would add.

Yet his words have inspired attempts to defend the indefensible — the erasure of women.

Some have argued that Sarkozy’s right-leaning, anti-Muslim bias was behind his opposition to the burqa. But I would remind them of comments in 2006 by the then-British House of Commons leader Jack Straw, who said the burqa prevents communication. He was right, and he was hardly a right-winger — and yet he too was attacked for daring to speak out against the burqa. >>> Mona Eltahawy | Thursday, July 02, 2009

Mona Eltahawy is an Egyptian-born commentator on Arab and Muslim issues.

Burqa: Al-Qaïda menace la France
leJDD.fr: Al-Qaïda s'est invité mardi dans le débat sur le port de la burqa en France. En réaction notamment à la position de Nicolas Sarkozy, qui a affirmé le 22 juin que ce voile intégral n'était "pas le bienvenu" dans l'Hexagone, la branche maghrébine de la nébuleuse terroriste a en effet menacé, mardi via des forums internet relayé par le centre américain SITE, de s'en prendre à la France. [Source: leJDD.fr] | Mardi 30 Juin 2009

LE FIGARO: Burqa : al-Qaida menace
la France

La branche maghrébine d'al-Qaida promet de se «venger» après les propos de Nicolas Sarkozy sur le port du voile intégral en France. Le président français avait déclaré que la burqa n'était «pas la bienvenue» sur le territoire français.

Le sujet avait créé la polémique et la réaction islamiste ne s'est pas fait attendre. Selon le centre américain de surveillance des sites islamistes SITE, citant des forums djihadistes sur internet, la branche maghrébine d'al-Qaida a menacé de se venger de la France après l'opposition de Nicolas Sarkozy au port de la burqa en France. «Nous nous vengerons de la France et de ses intérêts par tous les moyens à notre disposition, pour l'honneur de nos filles et de nos sœurs», a affirmé le dirigeant d'al-Qaida au Maghreb islamique (AQMI) Abou Moussab Abdoul Wadoud, cité par le SITE Intelligence Group. Créé en 2002, le Search for International Terrorist Entities (SITE) Intelligence Group est spécialisé dans la recherche et le dépistage de l'activité sur internet des organisations terroristes.

Al-Qaida a également appelé les musulmans à réagir à «l'hostilité de la France contre leur communauté religieuse» et ses tentatives pour empêcher, selon le groupe extrémiste, la pratique de l'islam. «Nous, les moujahidines, ne resterons pas silencieux face à de telles provocations et injustices», a déclaré Abdoul Wadoud. D'après le chef islamiste, les cinq millions de musulmans de France sont «de plus en plus préoccupés par les pratiques des hommes politiques et des dirigeants français et leur harcèlement».

Al-Qaida au Maghreb islamique a revendiqué de nombreux attentats meurtriers en Algérie. Le groupe était anciennement connu sous le nom de Groupe salafiste pour la prédication et le combat (GSPC) avant de faire allégeance à la nébuleuse al-Qaida. >>> Mathieu Szeradzki (lefigaro.fr) avec AFP | Mardi 30 Juin 2009

IC PUBLICATIONS: Qaeda Warns of Revenge on France for Burka Warning

Al-Qaeda's North Africa wing threatened on Tuesday to take revenge on France after President Nicolas Sarkozy said the Islamic burka was not welcome, the US monitoring service SITE Intelligence reported.

"Yesterday was the hijab (the Islamic headscarf long banned in French schools) and today, it is the niqab (the veil)," the leader of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb Abu Musab Abdul Wadud was quoted as saying.

"We will take revenge for the honour of our daughters and sisters against France and against its interests by every means at our disposal." [Source: ICPublications] | AFP | Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Ban the Burqa!

Hat tip: The Anti-Jihadist >>>

TIMES ONLINE:
Why not read this ridiculous article by Daisy Goodwin while you’re at it? >>>