The outgoing Christian Democratic-led government made the proposal on the eve of the November 22 elections. Immigration minister Rita Verdonk said the government “finds it undesirable that face-covering clothing—including the burqa—is worn in public places for reasons of public order, security and protection of citizens.”

Although she claimed the ban was against any kind of head covering such as a helmet, Muslim organizations condemned it as an attack on religious freedom and part of efforts to criminalize Muslims as “terrorists.” They noted that only a few dozen women in the Netherlands wear the burqa.

Protesters in front of the Dutch parliament carried banners stating, “The first lesson of integration: the constitution is for everyone.” One of the demonstrators, Aishah Bayrat, 41, a schoolteacher, said, “The burqa is a religious thing, nobody should interfere with it.”

The Dutch proposal was the latest in a series of similar moves against immigrants who are Muslim under the guise of the “war on terror.” The French government has banned women from wearing Islamic dress in schools; Berlin forbids teachers from wearing headscarves in state schools; and the Belgian city of Maaseik even fines women 125 euros if they dress in the burqa.

In October Britain’s former foreign secretary, Jack Straw, said Muslim women should remove full facial veils when talking to him, a statement subsequently endorsed by Prime Minister Anthony Blair.

There are about 1 million Muslims in the Netherlands, 6 percent of the population. The majority are workers from Morocco and Turkey and face severe job discrimination, with some 60 percent unemployed. The Dutch rulers have sought to blame these immigrants for the problems of the country’s capitalist economy. A city ordinance in Utrecht, for example, denies women who apply for jobs wearing the burqa the right to welfare benefits, claiming that they adopt Islamic dress simply to avoid getting hired.

The main opposition party in the Netherlands, the Labor Party, offered only meek criticism of the proposed burqa ban. “Amsterdam’s mayor, Job Cohen, of the opposition Labour Party, said he would like to see burqas disappear but a ban may not be the answer,” reported the Times of India.

The Dutch parliament overwhelmingly voted this year in favor of banning the burqa in public. Reflecting tactical differences in ruling circles over how to deal with immigration, Labor Party leader Wouter Bos said that if elected he will pardon thousands of immigrants who remain in the Netherlands even though their applications for asylum have been denied.

Demands that Muslims “integrate” into Dutch society were at the center of the 2002 national elections. Pim Fortuyn, a rightist candidate for prime minister, made opposition to immigrant rights the heart of his campaign. “If I could arrange it legally,” he declared, “I would simply say: no more Muslims can come in…. The country is full.”

Fortuyn posed as a supporter of women’s rights against “reactionary” Islam and called for defending “the nation” and “Dutch culture.” Since his murder in 2002, the Dutch government has implemented even more restrictive anti-immigrant laws and further “antiterrorist” measures undermining political rights.  
 
 
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