Germany is on edge after the armed group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) claimed two attacks in July, one on a train near Wuerzburg and one at a music festival in Ansbach, in which asylum-seekers injured 20 people.
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They say the burqa, niqab and other veils that cover the face show a lack of integration and suggest women are inferior and could pose security risks. More than a million migrants, many of them Muslim, arrived in Germany past year, leaving some Germans concerned that their country is being overrun by people with a different culture and religion.
The German Interior Minister, Thomas de Maiziere, has called for a partial ban on the burka, a day after saying a full ban might not be constitutional.
“It does not fit with our open society, to show one’s face is crucial for our living together, for our solidarity”.
The conservative interior ministers want to ensure women show their face while driving, when they register with authorities, at passport controls and at demonstrations.
Germany has almost four million Muslims, about five percent of the total population.
A study carried out by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees in 2009 found that more than two-thirds of Muslim women in Germany did not even wear a headscarf. The AfD is expected to perform well in regional elections in Berlin and the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in September.
The minister’s comments echoed the sentiments of Merkel, who said recently that “a fully covered woman has little chance of integrating in Germany”.
The partial ban has received the support of conservatives from German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s governing bloc, but still needs parliamentary approval to become law.
De Maiziere acknowledged the face veil was not a security issue and also that “overall it’s not a big problem in Germany”.
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The proposal would prevent anyone from wearing the veil in schools, universities, nurseries, public offices or while driving. The debate over a ban on the face veil has divided Merkel’s ruling coalition, with her Social Democrat (SPD) junior coalition partners largely against the demands.
