Rabat – American Representative, Jason Spencer, wants to amend an existing law to criminalize wearing Muslim burqa and veil in public places in the United States.
The law, dubbed the anti-masking law, was passed in 1951 to prevent Ku Klux Klan from committing acts of racism while wearing masks and hoods. The Georgia lawmaker is seeking to expand the law to include women wearing burqas and veils in the US.
The existing law reads:
“A person is guilty of a misdemeanor when he wears a mask, hood, or device by which any portion of the face is so hidden, concealed or covered as to conceal the identity of the wearer and is upon any public way or public property or upon the private property of another without the written permission of the owner or occupier of the property to do so.”
Echoing the anti-burqa ban in France and other countries, Spencer wants to add a phrase that reads “For the purposes of this subsection, the phrase ‘upon any public way or property’ includes but is not limited to operating a motor vehicle upon any public street, road, or highway.”
Edward Ahmed Mitchel, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Georgia said in an interview with the Huffington Post:
“The bill is a bad solution to a nonexistent problem. [These Muslim women] are not endangering themselves or anyone else. We have a new president, but not a new Constitution. The bill is unnecessary and unconstitutional, and we intend to oppose it if it goes forward.”
The same news source also reports that the Georgia Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has received numerous and disturbing reports from children allegedly being the victims of bullying in schools following Trump’s win in the election.
