Source: Google News
Wire Service: AFP
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5habSJFhPLUnJZ6W7N8AUep6w-wJA
Muslims in Belgium hit out at a looming public ban on the full-face Islamic veil, saying claims it was being introduced for security reasons were simply an excuse to crack down.
"I think they're trying to wind us up," Souad Barlabi, a young woman wearing a simple veil, said outside the Grand Mosque in Brussels around the time of Friday prayers.
"We feel under attack," she said, a day after Belgian lawmakers had voted for a nationwide ban on clothes or veils that do not allow the wearer to be fully identified, including the full-face niqab and burqa.
There were two abstentions, but significantly, no one voted against it in the house -- a rare sign of unity amid a power-sharing dispute between Belgium's linguistic communities which seems certain to lead to early elections.