French MPs vote to ban Islamic full veil in public

France's lower house of parliament has overwhelmingly approved a bill that would ban wearing the Islamic full veil in public.

There were 335 votes for the bill and only one against in the 557-seat National Assembly.

It must now be ratified by the Senate in September to become law.
The ban has strong public support but critics point out that only a tiny minority of French Muslims wear the full veil.
Many of the opposition Socialists, who originally wanted the ban limited only to public buildings, abstained from voting after coming under pressure from feminist supporters of the bill.

President Nicolas Sarkozy has backed the ban as part of a wider debate on French identity but critics say the government is pandering to far-right voters.

After the vote, Justice Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said it was a victory for democracy and for French values.

"Values of freedom against all the oppressions which try to humiliate individuals; values of equality between men and women, against those who push for inequality and injustice."

The vote is being closely watched in other countries, the BBC's Christian Fraser reports from the French capital Paris.

Spain and Belgium are debating similar legislation, and with such large-scale immigration in the past 20 or 30 years, identity has become a popular theme across Europe, our correspondent says.

'Open-faced democracy'
The bill would make it illegal to wear garments such as the niqab or burka, which incorporate a full-face veil, anywhere in public.
It envisages fines of 150 euros (£119) for women who break the law and 30,000 euros and a one-year jail term for men who force their wives to wear the burka.

The niqab and burka are widely seen in France as threats to women's rights and the secular nature of the state.
"Democracy thrives when it is open-faced," Ms Alliot-Marie told the National Assembly when she presented the bill last week.

She stressed the bill, which makes no reference to Islam or veils, was not aimed at "stigmatising or singling out a religion".
Berengere Poletti, an MP from Mr Sarkozy's centre-right UMP party, said women in full veils wore "a sign of alienation on their faces" and had to be "liberated".

Andre Gerin of the Communist opposition compared the veil to "a walking coffin, a muzzle".

'Fear of foreigners'
The bill is also seen as a touchstone for the Sarkozy administration's policy of integration. It is grappling with disaffected immigrant communities as it seeks to prevent a repeat of the mass unrest of 2005 on run-down French housing estates.
But critics point to government studies showing that many women do not fit the stereotype of marginalised, oppressed women.

There are estimated to be only about 2,000 women wearing the full veil in France though the bill is opposed by many of France's five million Muslims.
Mohammed Moussaoui, the head of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, a government advisory body, has supported taking steps to discourage women from wearing the full veil but has said a legal ban would stigmatise a vulnerable group.
Jean Glavany, a Socialist MP, said he opposed the ban on the grounds that it was "nothing more than the fear of those who are different, who come from abroad, who aren't like us, who don't share our values".

The Council of State, France's highest administrative body, warned in March that the law could be found unconstitutional.
If the bill passes the Senate in September, it will be sent immediately to France's Constitutional Council watchdog for a ruling.
Another challenge is possible at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, where decisions are binding.
In another development, a French businessman, Rachid Nekkaz, said he would set up a 1m-euro fund to help women pay fines imposed under the new law.

A ban in the street would violate constitutional principles, he argued.

BBC News

BNP Leader Nick Griffin threatens to ‘punish’ party opponents (UK)

Nick Griffin has threatened to “punish” British National Party members who criticise his leadership of the racist party.

Writing on Twitter, Griffin said: “If people want a leadership campaign that’s fine, but it’s got to be honest and fair to all candidates. The liars must be asked for evidence by all involved. And no one should be surprised when liars who can’t back up their character assassinations are punished.”

Griffin’s comment is obviously directed at Eddy Butler, who has challenged him to a leadership election and criticised his financial and administrative stewardship of the party. Butler and his supporters particularly condemn Griffin’s close relationship with Jim Dowson, the convicted criminal who effectively owns the BNP, and Patrick Harrington, a political colleague of Griffin since the 1970s who now runs the rival Third Way party. Butler also claims Griffin has made the BNP insolvent because he has “deliberately, avoidably and recklessly” involved the party in unnecessary legal action.

In reality, most of the lies have been about Butler and come from Griffin himself and his supporters, in particular Clive Jefferson, the party’s national elections officer, and Paul Golding, its communications officer, who appears to forget that it was Butler who masterminded his council by-election victory in Swanley, Kent. For Griffin to call for a campaign that is “honest and fair to all candidates” is hypocritical in the extreme.

Perhaps because Griffin has realised that the lies from his camp are counter-productive, or perhaps because of a risk of legal action if the leadership campaign is not run fairly and in accordance with the party’s constitution, two blogs set up to attack Butler were suspended over the weekend.

One carried a notice that it had been “deactivated due to the initiation of the official BNP leadership campaign period”. There is no provision in the BNP constitution for an official leadership campaign period starting on 10 July, the date the notice was posted. Nominations for the leadership open on 20 July and close on 10 August, but this is only the period in which a candidate has to submit nomination forms containing the signatures of at least 20% of the 4,200 party members with two years’ continuous membership and 20% of the 278 elite “voting members”.

Campaigning proper only starts in September after the challenger has surmounted the further hurdle of obtaining the vote of at least 10% of members of the “Founders’ Association” at a meeting held between 11 and 31 August. The Founders’ Association, a separate body in which all party assets are vested, is not defined in the constitution but it is apparently people who were paid-up members before the constitution was adopted in February and have remained members since.

Obtaining the requisite 20% support is of course no easy task, which is why Butler is keen to broaden his appeal among the various party factions from nazis to the more reformist elements. He has attracted the support of a number of influential party activists including Nick Cass in Yorkshire, Richard Edmonds, who helped found the party, Valerie Tyndall – the wife of the BNP’s first leader who still carries a certain amount of clout – and Lawrence Rustem in London.

His most recent coup is to secure the support of Michael Barnbrook, the self-styled BNP “sleazebuster”, who dines out on his failure to win a council by-election in Bexley, southeast London, by just nine votes.

Barnbrook, no relation to the BNP’s London Assembly member Richard Barnbrook, claims to have started the Parliamentary expenses scandal and to be personally responsible for ending the careers of several MPs, but complains that “hardly anybody in the public domain is aware” of this because the party has barely publicised his role.

As well being aggrieved at this perceived personal slight, Barnbrook is concerned about the nasty campaign to stop Butler getting nominations. The attack blog and rumours that members have been refused entry to meetings because they support Butler’s challenge are “blatant intimidation”, writes Barnbrook in a statement on Butler’s blog. “It appears that we can fight for freedom of speech and freedom of expression, so long as it doesn’t extend to a leadership challenge in the British National Party.”

If the BNP has failed to publicise Barnbrook’s “sleazebusting” role to his satisfaction, it can only be because Griffin does not like anyone else to claim more of the limelight than himself. Searchlight, however, is more interested in Barnbrook’s links with Ellis Hammond, a former Police Community Support Officer (PCSO), who last year pleaded guilty to five specimen charges of downloading and possessing a total of 58 indecent images of children, ranging from level 1 to level 5 (the most serious).

Hammond was a member of Bexley BNP branch alongside Barnbrook, a retired police inspector. The police found the images after removing Hammond’s computer while executing a warrant to search his home in Welling for weapons, where they found an arsenal including a CS gas canister, a knuckle duster and eight combat knives, as well as hate material and his BNP membership card. He had lied on his PCSO application form, claiming not to be a member of a proscribed organisation, namely the BNP.

Hammond was sentenced to a three-year community order and his name was placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for five years. He was also banned for life from working with people aged under 18.

Another Bexley BNP colleague of Barnbrook who lied to become a PCSO is David Vanner, who in November 2008 posted on the BNP members’ forum: “Although unfortunately I am unable to leaflet or attend meetings due to my line of work (Michael Barnbrook will sympathise), however I would be more than willing to make a donation to the Bexley branch as I understand it is fairly short of funds.” He lost his job after his BNP membership was revealed.

If Butler does win the leadership, it seems unlikely that his BNP will be any more respectable than the party is now.

Hope Not Hate

'TOO FEW ETHNIC MINORITY OFFICERS' HIRED BY GCHQ (UK)

Britain's secret eavesdropping centre, GCHQ, has been criticised for failing to recruit enough ethnic minority staff to help fight terrorism. An official report, leaked to the Sunday Times, also said black and Asian intelligence officers had complained of discrimination at the complex in Cheltenham, in Gloucestershire. A GCHQ spokesman told the BBC policies and practices were now being improved. Much of GCHQ's work involves monitoring calls and e-mails from terror suspects. But the report, authorised by the head of the civil service, Sir Gus O'Donnell, says a lack of officers with specialist knowledge of languages like Urdu and Arabic is hampering efforts to spot codes and cultural nuances in intercepted conversations. "It is critical to have a diverse staff group who are able to profile and recognise certain behaviour patterns and communications," the document says.

The report recommends better engagement with ethnic minority communities in order to boost recruitment and improve the image of the organisation. "This is critical to good national security intelligence," it adds. The report says GCHQ has tried to improve its equality and diversity, but "the culture of the organisation has not been receptive to this" and it "is seen as a people issue which only applies to some people". It points out that there are no black or Asian senior managers. Several dozen ethnic minority intelligence officers were interviewed during its preparation, and among the complaints recorded was: "I wasn't born here and although I have been security cleared, I am constantly challenged about my loyalty to Britain by my colleagues." Another employee said: "The security officers ask questions which are culturally inappropriate, insensitive and offensive." A third said they felt that ethnic minority employees had to work harder than white colleagues "and for less reward".

Targeted recruitment
The director of communications at GCHQ, Chris Marshall, said the organisation had "long recognised that strict nationality and residency requirements for staff, and the specialist nature of our work, have made it challenging to develop a workforce which represents the diversity of the UK population". He said the organisation had tried to improve things with a targeted recruitment campaign, but a review in 2009 "reflected that GCHQ continued to fall short in meeting our targets". Mr Marshall said that in response to it, GCHQ was "making a number of improvements to our policies and practices", including employing a dedicated diversity officer and focusing recruitment on specific universities with large ethnic minority populations. "GCHQ is regularly recognised as a good employer but we aspire to be the best," he said. "We recognise that recruiting a diverse range of people, treating them in a non-discriminatory way and supporting them to achieve their full potential is key to that aspiration."

BBC News

ETHNIC MINORITY JOBLESS RATE RISES (Netherlands)

Some 25% of youngsters with a Turkish, Moroccan, Surinamese or Antillean background are without a job, according to research by the Forum multicultural research institute in the Volkskrant on Monday. In total, 14% of people with a non-western background are jobless, compared with 5.1% of the native white Dutch, the Forum survey shows. A year ago, the unemployment rate under non-western immigrants was 10%. Forum director Sadik Harcahoui said the higher jobless rate among ethnic minority youth is not necessarily because of discrimination. Ethnic minority youngsters are more likely to have a flexible contract, meaning they are the first to go when things get tough, he points out. And while education levels are improving, they still lag behind their white peers.


Dutch News

Man hurt in racist attack in Rugby bar (UK)

A man was left needing hospital treatment following a violent attack at a Rugby nightspot.


The victim was with a woman in Walkabout in High Street, Rugby, during a night out, when he was approached by two men.

The men made racist comments, before hitting him in the face.

He was taken to hospital where he had stitches in his lip and treatment to his eye.

The incident took place at about 2am on Saturday.

A 23-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated assault.

He was taken into custody and questioned about the incident.

He was later released on police bail, pending further inquiries.


Anyone who witnessed the incident or has any information which would help officers with their inquiries, should contact Rugby police station on 01926 415000.

Information can also be passed onto police, in confidence, via independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.
Coventry Telegraph