By Scott Tibbs, July 21, 2010
The French Parliament voted to make it illegal for women to wear full-face Islamic veils in public, setting up a showdown over whether the ban is illegal. The wearing of veils has reached epidemic proportions in France, where it is estimated that 2,000 women wear veils in a nation of 64 million people that includes 5 million Muslims. Clearly, the French parliament needed to act before they were overrun by the veils and forced to adopt Sharia law.
On Sean Hannity's radio program yesterday, a caller suggested that women who want to wear veils go back to their own country. What if the people affected are natives of France? Would she be saying the same thing if France was moving to ban crosses in public? Is there any honest person who does not know the answer to that question?
The caller further complained that Islam is dangerous because it forces people to choose Allah over family, including one's children. I'm certainly not defending Islam, which is a false religion that leads followers to Hell. The caller's argument, however, ignores Matthew 10:37, where Jesus clearly states that He must be the most important thing in the life of any Believer - a reasonable expectation for the Son of God who died to save His creation from sin.
This law is an expression of anti-Muslim bigotry, plain and simple. It is designed to stir tensions against a virtually nonexistent practice. It is a completely unnecessary move by a paranoid government that is creating unnecessary conflict with both the Muslim population in France and the Muslim world in general. High-minded justifications that this is to protect women from being forced to wear veils are disingenuous at best - that could be done though the law without making it illegal for women to wear a veil by choice.
President Obama has promised to reach out to the Muslim world. He should do that by denouncing French extremism and making it clear that the United States supports religious freedom, including the right to wear religious clothing as one sees fit, within reason and without being disruptive.
