US Critical of Veil Ban in France, Belgium

The United States has criticised France and Belgium for banning women from wearing face-covering Islamic veils in public, while
warning of growing anti- Semitism and hostility towards Muslims in Europe. The US State Department’s report on religious freedoms, researched in 2011 but released on July 30, 2012, warned that freedom of worship was being undermined across the globe “” particularly in China and Pakistan. In Europe there was “growing xenophobia, anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim sentiment, and intolerance toward people considered ‘the other’,” according to the report, which also complained of a “rising  number of European countries, including Belgium and France, whose laws restricting dress adversely affected Muslims and others.” “Hillary Clinton needs to think more about the emancipation of women. It is not as straightforward an issue as the State Department portrays,” said Socialist-supporting
philosopher Henri Pena-Ruiz. (Access full report on : France 24 Le Monde Liberation 20 minutes Report