The
government has decided it will not impose a general ban on the wearing of
burqas and similar garments in public on security grounds, but will bar them
and full-face veils at schools and for government workers, local news reports
said. They said the government had concluded that a broad ban would violate the
constitutionally guaranteed freedom of religion. About a million Muslims live
in the Netherlands,
and Muslim groups say just 50 to 100 women regularly wear a burqa. Geert
Wilders, the right-wing leader of an anti-immigration party, sent a bill to
Parliament last July proposing a ban on the burqa in public.
WUNRN
January 24, 2008
The Netherlands: Government Said to
Back Off Burqa Ban
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