There Goes Religious Freedom

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

Belgium may be the spiritual home of draped black body-shrouding goth-lite (see: Demeulemeester, Margiela, the Antwerp Six), but it's the first country that's currently thisclose to banning the burqa. There are 650,000 Muslims living in Belgium—which comprises about 6% of the country. "The text of the new law does not specifically mention burkas but makes it illegal for anyone to wear clothing ‘that covers all or most of the face’ in any public place. Left-wing MP Denis Ducarme left no doubt the rules were targeting-Muslim extremists. He said after the vote by the home affairs committee: 'This sends a very strong signal to radical Islamists.'" [Daily Mail]