Thursday, May 01, 2008

Danish Party Opposes Muslim Magistrates Wearing of Head Scarves

According to a story today from Agence France-Presse, Danish authorities last December authorized Muslim magistrates to wear headscarves in their courtrooms. Now that this has been recently disclosed, Denmark's right-wing DPP party is launching a series of newspaper ads opposing the practice. The ads call headscarves a "veil of tyranny". Justice Minister Lene Espersen suggested that new rules might be adopted that would ban judges from wearing any religious symbol that could impair the neutrality of the court. This would include Christian crosses as well as Muslim head scarves.