Ten years ago a bunch of terrorists flew commercial airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and triggered a process that continues to extract a heavy toll in the form of blood and treasure. On that fateful day, thousands of innocent people, including a few hundred Muslims, died. As the dust settled, American Muslims found themselves besieged, vulnerable, and unwanted in this country even though they had nothing to do with al-Qaeda or 9/11 atrocities.
As American citizens, we Muslims are increasingly subjected to unprecedented scrutiny when we travel by air, our bank accounts can be probed at will, and our conversations are recorded and our telephones are tapped for the flimsiest of reasons. A Muslim name, a foreign accent, or a native dress rings alarm bells in the minds of our fellow citizens.
(Followers of Islam sujected to decade of unfair treatment, from The Blade newspaper)
The Islamic scarf controversy in France, referred to there as l'affaire du voile (the veil affair), l'affaire du voile islamique (the Islamic veil affair), and l'affaire du foulard (the scarf affair) among other bynames arose in 1989, pertaining to the wearing of the hijab in French public schools. It involved issues of the place of Muslim women, differences between Islamic doctrine and Islamic tradition, the conflict between communitarianism and the French policy of minority assimilation, the frequent confusion of the terms Muslim, Arab, and Maghrebin in France, discussions of the "Islamist threat" to French society and of Islamophobia[1][2] and of strict secularity in state institutions.
(From Wiki, Franch law and represents the place in EU)
Belgium:
A law banning the full-face veil came into effect in Belgium in July 2011.
The law bans any clothing that obscures the identity of the wearer in places like parks and on the street.
In December 2012, Belgium's Constitutional Court rejected appeals for the ban to be annulled, ruling that it did not violate human rights.
Before the law was passed, the burka was already banned in several districts under old local laws originally designed to stop people masking their faces completely at carnival time.
Spain
Though there are no plans for a national ban in Spain, the city of Barcelona announced a ban on full Islamic face-veils in some public spaces such as municipal offices, public markets and libraries.
At least two smaller towns in Catalonia, the north-eastern region that includes Barcelona, have also imposed bans.
The Netherlands
Plans to impose a ban in the Netherlands under the country's previous centre-right coalition were shelved in 2012 when the government collapsed and was replaced by its left-wing rivals.
The earlier proposed ban reflected the influence of the anti-Islamist Geert Wilders, whose Freedom party was at that time the third largest in parliament and the minority coalition government's chief ally.
(All above from BBC news)
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