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According to associate press, French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday ordered legislation that would ban women from wearing Islamic veils that hide the face in the street and other public places. Now the face veil ban becomes very real.
Last month, a Belgian parliamentary committee has voted to ban face-covering Islamic veils from being worn in public. The home affairs committee voted unanimously to endorse the move, which must be approved by parliament for it to become law. Now Sarkozy wants to submit bill banning Islamic face veils in France. The decision to seek a full ban, rather than a limited ban, came as a surprise. After a Cabinet meeting just a week ago, the government spokesman announced a decision for legislation that bans the veil but takes into account conclusions on the matter by the Council of State, France's highest administrative office. France outlawed Muslim headscarves and other "ostentatious" religious symbols from classrooms in 2004 after a marathon parliamentary debate.
It is estimated that between 3% to 4% of the Belgian population is Muslim (98% Sunni) (350,000 to 400,000 people). The majority of Belgian Muslims live in the major cities, such as Antwerp, Brussels and Charleroi. The largest group of immigrants in Belgium are Moroccans, with 264,974 people. The Turks are the third-largest group, and the second-largest Muslim ethnic group, numbering 159,336. There is also a small Hindu population. Moreover about 10,000 Sikhs are also present in Belgium.
Estimates of the number of Muslims in France vary widely. According to the 1999 French census returns, there were 3.7 million people of “possible Muslim faith” in France (6.3% of the total population). In 2003, the French Ministry of the Interior estimated the total number of Muslims to be between five and six million (8-10%).
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