In a controversial legal step taken by the Dutch Parliament, the Cabinet has proposed to pass legislation that bans the traditional Muslim garments, the niqab and burqa, by 2013.

Communications Intern Noor Salahuddin discusses whether lawmakers around the world should have the right to decide what kind of religious dress, if any, should be allowed in public places.

“Far from a victory in the fight for women’s rights, France’s ban of the burqa, the head-to-toe covering worn by some Muslim women, is a red herring, a deflection, and a blow for free societies everywhere,” writes Christina Abraham, CAIR-Chicago’s Civil Rights Director.

Ramadan spoke during the sixth annual banquet, organized by CAIR in Chicago. At this year’s event gathered more than fifteen hundred people. Ramadan called on Muslims to adopt a new understanding of themselves, to learn the concept of “new us” – we, as citizens of America, we, as Muslims, who are part of the collective American “we.”

CAIR-Chicago is pleased to announce that Professor Tariq Ramadan will be the keynote speaker at our 6th Annual Banquet. This will be his first event in the U.S. in nearly six years, since the Bush Administration’s ban. Ramadan was chosen as one of the world’s 100 most influential human beings by TIME magazine and currently teaches at Oxford University.

“Most Muslims accept the minaret as an architectural conduit for the call to prayer, but most do not seek political power, subscribe to the burqa, tolerate forced marriages, or accept genital mutilation of girls,” comments Ahmed Rehab. “How these three things are ‘comparable’ with a minaret must be Switzerland’s dirty little secret because I cannot figure it out.”