Mohammad is the most popular name in Brussels, capital of Belgium and the European Union. About six per cent of the Belgian population is Muslim, amounting to more than half a million people. The imminent ban of the burqa in Belgium will rock the rest of Europe and worsen relations with the Arab and Muslim worlds.
A majority in the Belgian Parliament is expected to pass a law against "covering the face" later this month. The ambiguous language used by the proponent of the new bill, Daniel Bacquelaine, president of the centre-right Francophone Liberal Party, avoids any religious reference, but everyone knows it targets the Muslim community.
The problem is that passing this law goes against the hard-won democratic principles that Europeans have literally died for, by the millions, over the past centuries. The two world wars were about stopping the virulent expansion of Fascism across the European continent; wars that paved the way for the freedom of expression and democracy.
Whether one is for or against the burqa, imposing a law from above upon the broader population is a step backwards, it's unconstitutional and it will backfire: Muslim immigrants will assimilate less in Europe; identities will fragment further and social segregation will increase.
No discussion
Where is the public debate? The politics are in motion, but the cultural discussion is thwarted, precisely by entering into this for-or-against argument. Most disconcerting is that most people do not know the difference and so stereotypes of the "other" are being reinforced, simply because most Europeans believe that women should not wear any kind of veil.
So the blue veil with meshing in front of the face (burqa) is confused with the black shawl (chador), the veil with the eye-slits (niqab) and the head scarf (hijab). For example, the Belgian paper La Libre recently inserted a huge "burqa" poster that included a photo of a woman wearing a brown niqab.
Then we are told that for "security reasons" all citizens should now show their faces. The sudden security hysteria is also being imposed and emanates from the global paradigm established by the United States after September 11, 2001. Europe has been dragged by the US into long wars, supposedly to protect basic human freedoms.
Remember that the US toppling of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan was justified as an attempt to liberate Afghan women. Ten years into Operation Enduring Freedom, women still wear the burqa in Afghanistan, which remains one of the few countries around the world where it is actually worn.
Calling all veils burqas is problematic because, for example, a large majority of immigrants in Brussels come from Morocco, but Moroccan women do not wear the burqa. European politicians are making a security threat out of a form of the "other" that does not exist there, thus placing limits on tolerance and putting democracy at stake.
This issue should not be about insulting Islam. Derisive comments about Muslim prayer customs by polemicists such as Christopher Hitchens and Oriana Fallaci, once leftists and now endorsed by misinformed Marxists, such as Slavoj Zizek, are not productive and aggravate enduring tensions between Islam and the West.
Europe is at the heart of these tensions and feels the repercussions most. The waves of Christian crusades and Muslim invasions, as well as decisive battles from Poitiers (AD732) to Lepanto (1571), have marked the history of Europe and Islam. Each has wanted to conquer and control the other. Each has failed and now must endeavour to live together.
But this is not about endorsing Islam either. The imposition of any kind of veil has cultural roots. However, the Quran only mentions covering hair as a reference to private parts, not as an obligation to cover the female body from head-to-toe. All women are undeniably beautiful in their own way. So why hide beauty? Why hide life?
These are questions that demand debate, not a new law imposing what women cannot wear — upon penalty of a fine or prison! Once again: engaging Islam in constructive debate does not mean endorsing the veil. This should be about revealing insecurities and hypocrisies on all sides. Let us hear what more women think!
For modern democracies, such as Belgium, at the very centre of the European project, the burqa controversy is perhaps the greatest test for its proclaimed tolerance, a value reinforcing cultural diversity, a diversity and freedom now under attack from the right in Belgium, in the Netherlands, France, Austria, Denmark and across Europe.
This conservative trend is dangerous for countries that do not know what to do about massive immigration and rampant unemployment. This is also dangerous for citizens who may wish to exercise their democratic rights. Only one thing is for sure: a new law about the burqa will not reveal what is really behind the veil.
Stuart Reigeluth is editor of Revolve.
