This edited collection provides a comprehensive analysis of the legal contexts
within which the “burqa affair” is located across Europe. It was published following
the December 2012 “Secularism and Religious Diversity in Europe:
Opportunities and Perspectives” conference organized under the auspices of
the RELIGARE project (Religious Diversity and Secular Models in Europe).
Its aims are ambitious and commendable: to analyze the socio-legal situation
of face-veil wearers in eight Western European countries where regulations
range from outright bans (disguised under the tagline of banning full or partial
face coverings to avoid reasonable allegations of religious discrimination directed
at the already besieged European Muslim populations) to the simultaneous
lack of general prohibitions but specific rulings against full-face veils.
American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences