The Dutch start the ball rolling in Europe

[bj229r]

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20061117-115917-2132r.htm

A small first step, but maybe Europe isn't going to be run over....(birth rates of Europeans vs birth rates of Muslim immigrants aside)

Dutch consider prohibition of Muslim veil
By Mike Corder
ASSOCIATED PRESS
November 18, 2006


THE HAGUE -- The Dutch government announced plans yesterday for legislation banning full-length veils in public places and other clothing that covers the face -- putting the Netherlands at the forefront of a general European hardening toward Muslim minorities.
    The Netherlands, once considered one of Europe's most welcoming nations for immigrants and asylum seekers, is deeply divided over moves by the government to stem the tide of new arrivals and compel immigrants to assimilate into Dutch society

The issue has resonance throughout Europe. Former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw recently caused a stir by saying he wants Muslim women to abandon the full-face veil -- a view endorsed by Prime Minister Tony Blair. In France, the center-right's leading presidential candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy, has increasingly been adopting some of the rhetoric of the extreme right.

    In the Netherlands, policies associated with the nationalist fringe in 2002 have been co-opted by the center: holding asylum-seekers in detention centers, more muscle for the police and intelligence services, and visa examinations that require would-be immigrants to watch videos of homosexuals kissing and of topless women on the beach. Everyone must learn to speak Dutch, and Muslim clerics must mind what they say in their Friday sermons for fear of deportation.
    The issue was given added urgency with the 2004 slaying of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh by a Muslim fanatic and the failed attempt to expel a Somali-born critic of Islam and strip her of her Dutch citizenship.
    About 1 million Muslims live in the Netherlands, among a population of 16 million, but only a few hundred are believed to regularly wear a burqa or any other full-length veil.
    After France banned the wearing of head scarves in public schools, the Dutch government decided to leave that question up to individual schools. Most allow head scarves.
    The city of Utrecht has cut some welfare benefits to unemployed women who insist on wearing burqas to job interviews. The city contended that the women were using the burqa to avoid working, knowing they would not be hired.
 

[Nilsen]

Originally posted by bj229r

A small first step, but maybe Europe isn't going to be run over....(birth rates of Europeans vs birth rates of Muslim immigrants aside)

Were do you get your ideas?

[bj229r]

Originally posted by Nilsen


Were do you get your ideas?

Man, I've heard this a million times in the states..here is a reputable site:

http://www.brookings.edu/views/op-ed/fellows/taspinar20030301.htm

Whether Brussels, Berlin, Paris, or Washington like it or not, Europe’s Muslim constituencies are likely to become an even more vocal foreign policy lobby. Two trends are empowering Europe’s Muslim street: demographics and opportunities for full citizenship.

It’s worth remembering that Europe’s Muslim population is an unintended consequence of actions taken nearly a half century ago. During the postwar labor shortage in the 1950s and 1960s, Turks, Algerians, Moroccans, Tunisians, and Pakistanis were called to help spur Europe’s economic recovery. No host country expected these “guestworkers,” as the Germans called them with characteristic frankness, to overstay their welcome. Like all good guests, they were supposed to leave, preferably when the recession hit and the party was over in the 1970s. They didn’t. Instead, their families joined them, and new generations of European Turks, Algerians, Moroccans, Tunisians, and Pakistanis were born.

More are on the way. Today, the Muslim birth rate in Europe is three times higher than the non-Muslim one. If current trends continue, the Muslim population of Europe will nearly double by 2015, while the non-Muslim population will shrink by 3.5 percent.

.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

WTG Dutch.. IMO it's a great idea to ban all religious signia especially if it's related to any kind of extremism. A bit like gang vests are / were banned in major cities to prevent conflict.

A persons religion should be confined to his own private needs and not laid on bystanders in any form, be it benevolent or especially violent.

[Nilsen]

Oh I agree... All cristian, muslim and other religious folks should keep the religion to themselves and behind closed doors.

I dont know anything about the "Brookings Institute" but It will be houndreds of years before the Muslims can "overrun" my country even in the remotest theory. You said Europe so i gather you mean all the individual countries in Europe. The problematic muslims are a minority and its usually only the first generation and some in the second that spawns kids like there is no tomorrow. The second generation and beyond are too fond of western values and get indoctrinated with our culture. They get about the same amount of kids as the rest of us.


All that beeing said, I would love it if they closed the borders tight and only let in those who have been severly prosecuted in their home land, or non-religious people with skills and education.

[Dago]

$10 says it will not stick, and the PC crowd will get that law knocked down.

[Angus]

IMHO there is a long way from a neclace like a cross (or a half-moon for that matter) to a total face cover.
Would total ski-masks be allowed anywhere as a photo on the drivers license, being worn in schools and so on. Naaa.