By ELAINE GANLEY - AP
Added: Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:00:00 UTC

Thanks to Lucas for the link.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100126/ap_on_re_eu/eu_france_forbidding_the_veil

PARIS – A parliamentary panel that wants Muslim women to stop veiling their faces recommended Tuesday that France ban such garb in public facilities, including hospitals and mass transit, and a leading panel member said he foresees such an interdiction by the end of 2010.

The nearly 200-page report contains a panoply of measures intended to dissuade women from wearing all-enveloping veils in France. It also recommends refusing residence cards and citizenship to anyone with visible signs of a "radical religious practice."

However, there is no call to outlaw such garments — worn by a tiny minority of Muslims — in private areas and in the street. A full ban was the major issue that divided the 32-member, multiparty panel which ultimately heeded warnings that a full ban risked being deemed unconstitutional and could even cause trouble in a country where Islam is the second-largest religion.

The report, which culminates six months of hearings, was formally presented to the president of the National Assembly, the lower house, Bernard Accoyer, and made public.

Conservative lawmaker Eric Raoult, the panel's No. 2 member, said later that he foresaw a limited ban in the public sector "before the end of the year."
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100126/ap_on_re_eu/eu_france_forbidding_the_veil

TAGGED: LAW, POLITICS, RELIGION