Do Europeans Reduce Islam to the Burqa?
Gerin would like to initiate a debate on the issue of the degree to which France — with its strict separation of church and state — is willing to accommodate Islam. He says that he is only using the burqa as a catalyst. The French domestic intelligence service has identified only 367 women throughout the country who wear a burqa. Of all the problems associated with the up to 6 million Muslims in the country, burqas are probably the least of them. Many religious Muslims accuse Europeans of equating Islam with the burqa, the burqa with the Taliban, the Taliban with Osama bin Laden. They say that people talk about them as if they were all Islamists, as if they had not already been living in the country for decades. But Gerin has achieved his objective. In his hearing room the French Republic is struggling with the exception to the rule — in the name of liberty, equality and fraternity. How can it be, asks Gerin, that we accept attacks on the personal liberty of anyone in our country? H
