Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb threatens France over the burqa affair

By Olivier Guitta

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb did not wait long to react to the controversy of the burqa in France and in a communiqué accused France of “religious terrorism” and threatened her of attacks on its soil or against its interests.
I just wrote an article on this topic for the Weekly Standard.
You can read it here.

Here is an excerpt:
In his speech in Cairo, President Obama mentioned no less than three times the headscarf sometimes worn by Muslim women. Each time, his purpose was to stress "the right of women and girls to wear the hijab"--but never their right not to wear it. It was as if it had never occurred to the president that this sartorial practice could be anything but wholly voluntary.

The French, whose 2004 ban on the hijab and other religious attire in public schools Obama was indirectly criticizing, are more attuned to the use of the headscarf as an instrument of domination by religious extremists. It was Muslim women seeking relief from pressure to cover themselves whose complaints led ultimately to the French ban. Now the issue has cropped up again in the form of a call, endorsed by French president Nicolas Sarkozy, to ban the total veiling of the face.

It all started in mid-June when André Gérin, the Communist mayor of Vénissieux, a suburb of Lyon, who is also a member of the National Assembly, proposed a parliamentary commission to investigate the burqa (an outer garment covering a woman from head to toe) and the niqab (which veils the whole face except the eyes) as oppressive to women. His resolution stated:

A woman wearing a burqa or a niqab is in a state of unbearable isolation, exclusion, and humiliation. Her very existence is denied. The sight of these imprisoned women is intolerable when it comes to us from Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, or other Arab countries. It is totally unacceptable on the soil of the French Republic.

A few days later, in a historic address to parliament, Sarkozy said the burqa is not "welcome in France." This "is not a religious issue," the president said, "but rather a question of freedom and of women's dignity."