French anti-burqa drive 'religious terrorism: Qaeda

RABAT (Reuters/AFP) - Al-Qaedas north African wing threatened revenge against France for launching a war against Muslim women who wear full burqas that cover them from head to toe, according to a Web statement posted in the groups name.
French legislators expressed concern this month that more and more Muslim women were wearing a burqa or a niqab which cloaks the entire body, sometimes leaving a gap for the eyes.
President Nicolas Sarkozy said the garments were not welcome in France because they are a symbol of the subjugation of women.
The group also called on Muslims to retaliate against France, the US monitoring service SITE Intelligence reported.
Here is France mustering all her capacity, mobilising all her institutions and organising her ranks to wage a perfidious new war against our sisters who wear the niqab, said the statement posted on a Web site used by Al-Qaeda supporters.
It said the French were committing these injustices at a time when their denuded women ... flock to our land and occupy our beaches and streets, outrageously defying the feelings of Muslims.
It said Frances campaign against the burqa was tantamount to religious terrorism and was an incitement to a hatred that would only grow.
This is why we call upon all Muslims to respond to this hatred by another that is more ravaging, we call upon them to confront this French obstinacy, the statement said.
It said Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb vowed before Allah not to be silent in the face of these provocations and injustices and do all in our power and take revenge at the first opportunity against France and its interests wherever they may be found, for the honour of our daughters and our sisters.
Yesterday was the hijab (the Islamic headscarf long banned in French schools) and today, it is the niqab (the full veil), the leader of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb Abu Musab Abdul Wadud was quoted as saying.
We will take revenge for the honour of our daughters and sisters against France and against its interests by every means at our disposal.
The group also called on Muslims to retaliate for what it called French hostility against the community and its attempt to obstruct Islams practice on its territory.
For us, the Mujahideen ... we will not remain silent to such provocations and injustices, Abdul Wadud said without elaborating, according to SITE.
We call upon all Muslims to confront this hostility with greater hostility, and to counter Frances efforts to divide male and female believers from their faith with a greater effort ... (by) adherence to the teachings of their Islamic Sharia.
He said Muslims in France, who are estimated at around five million, are increasingly concerned about the practices of French politicians and leaders and their harassment.
In 2004, France passed a law banning headscarves or any other conspicuous religious symbols in schools to uphold a separation between church and state.
Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri criticised the law, saying the decision showed the grudge the Western crusaders have against Islam.