Belgium Bans the Burka

Belgium has become the first Western European country to approve a national ban on the burka, with the lower house of the Belgian Parliament unanimously passing the measure Thursday. This could open the way for similar bans in other countries.

While the legislation still has to be ratified by the Senate, it is not expected to be blocked there and may become law as early as June or July, if the country’s political turmoil doesn’t cause delays. The burka is already banned in two dozen local districts in Belgium, including the capital, Brussels.

The legislation is being seen by some more as a political statement against Islam than a security-based measure, seeing as the wearing of the full veil is rare in Belgium. The center-right Reform Movement party, which introduced the legislation, admitted that the measure was “a message to Islamic activists that Belgium will not tolerate challenges to its national values” (Washington Post,April 30).

The ban will make it illegal for the Islamic burka and the niquab, which partly or entirely covers a woman’s face and body, to be worn in public places, including in the street, public gardens and sports grounds.

“It does clear the way for other countries that are equally uncomfortable about the visibility of Islam in the public space,” Shada Islam, a senior analyst at the European Policy Center, a Brussels think tank, said following the Belgian vote.

Belgium’s move is part of a rapidly growing trend across Europe, reflecting an increasing dissatisfaction with the prominence of Islam on the Continent. While Muslims make up only a small percentage of the population in Western Europe, there is growing resentment among Europeans toward the high profile Islam is gaining in society. A Financial Times survey in March showed that in France, the UK, Italy, Spain and Germany, a majority of respondents supported a burka ban.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has repeatedly said the burka is “not welcome” in France, and is drafting a bill to make it illegal to wear the veil. The government is set to approve the bill May 19, before it goes to parliament in July. Politicians in the Netherlands and Italy have also pushed for bans on the burka, and lawmakers in Switzerland and Austria have reportedly talked about it too.

Meanwhile, a European parliamentarian has called for a Europe-wide ban on the burka. Silvana Koch-Mehrin, the head of Germany’s Free Democrats in the European Parliament, called for the ban in the wake of the Belgian vote because covering women, she said, “openly supports values that we do not share in Europe.” Koch-Mehrin’s statement actually gets to the core driver of the burka debate in Europe: It’s a battle over values—essentially, Catholicized Western values as opposed to Islam.

Expect the backlash against Islam on the Continent to grow. For more on where this will lead, read “Islam in Europe—Beginning of the Backlash?”