61 held over Paris veil protest

Paris: Paris police say authorities arrested 61 people — including 19 women — in connection with their attempt to hold an illegal Paris demonstration against France's upcoming ban on face-covering Islamic veils.

A top Paris police official said 59 people were detained while trying to protest at Place de la Nation in eastern Paris, and two others were detained while travelling there from Britain and Belgium.

France is set to enact a ban of face-covering Muslim veils on Monday.

Fifty-nine people were detained while trying to demonstrate at Place de la Nation in eastern Paris, as were two others while travelling there from Britain and Belgium, said Nicolas Lerner, chief of staff for the Paris police chief.

Swell of controversy

The arrests come amid a rising, if small, groundswell of controversy over today's start of an official ban of garments that hide the face, which includes Muslim veils such as the slit-eyed niqab and the full face-covering burqa. Women who disobey the law risk a fine, special classes and a police record.

The demonstrators rallied in defiance of a ban of the protest ordered on Friday by Paris police on the ground that a Muslim group's call for the rally was "clearly an incitement to violence and racial hatred," said Lerner.

"The demonstration was not banned because of the practice [among some Muslim women] of wearing veils, but because of the speech," he said, adding that Jewish groups and others had planned counter-protests — raising the prospect of public disorder.

Most of the would-be protesters were released after being taken to police stations, though six remained in custody — mostly on suspicion of being in France illegally, Lerner said.

The two would-be protesters who had tried to arrive from Britain and Belgium were known to French authorities. Police were under existing orders to stop and expel them, if they tried to reach France.

Terrorist links

Lerner identified the man who had travelled from Britain as Anjem Choudary, the head of Islam4UK until it was banned earlier this year by Britain for glorifying Al Qaida. Several people associated with the group have been linked to terrorist acts.

The protest was called by a group known as Unicite Tawhib, which has been linked to Internet sites that call for Islam to dominate France and the world, Lerner said.