'Veil committee': no outright ban

The French parliamentary committee set up in June to look at the practices of radical Islam and the possibility of banning the full veil in France have today made their recommendations public. The panel, based on the evidence of 200 experts – from representatives of feminist associations, Muslim scholars, philosophers, the intelligence services, to professionals from the education and health systems – has delivered a predictable verdict ( see all 644 pages of the report here – pdf ). Though there is a consensus that would have allowed it to assert loud and clear that the burka, niqab and all religious garments covering the face of a woman have no place in the French republic, the committee falls short of proposing legislation to ban it from the streets. Their resolution will be symbolic rather than prescriptive. The committee may be insisting that the full veil should now be banned in public spaces such as hospitals, schools and official buildings, but this is already the case, as the 2004 law barring anyone from wearing conspicuous religious symbols in public spaces makes very clear. In other words, the 32 members of the parliamentary commission failed to reach an agreement. From as early as July, its socialist members declared they wouldn't be taking part in the final vote as a sign of protest against the hijacking of the debate by the Sarkozy government in the run up to the regional elections of March 2010. And then there were, as MPs called it, "manly disputes" between members of the president's own UMP party . Some wanted to ban the full veil from public view once and for all, even if it meant being overruled by the highest judicial authority in France, the constitutional council, and also by Europe's court of human rights. Others wanted to seek legal advice before proposing an outright ban. In the end, out of the 32 members, only 12 took part in a vote with 6 against an outright ban and 6 in favour. As the latest poll published today in a special supplement to the daily Libération suggests, an overwhelming majority of French people, 75% of them, oppose the very idea of a full veil. However, they are also aware that enforcing a ban on the streets would prove very difficult to implement; 39% of them oppose an outright ban. Perhaps the news this afternoon that Hassen Chalghoumi, the imam of Drancy who advocated a ban on the full veil, has received death threats from radical Islamists and is now under 24-hour police protection, illustrates the French republic's fight to confront the rise of Salafism in parts of the country.