EU ruling allows employers to ban hijab

Sets precedent amid hot debate across continent

PARIS • The European Court of Justice issued a non-binding ruling Tuesday that employers can prohibit the Muslim head scarf in the workplace, setting an important precedent for a continent in the midst of a fraught political climate.

As a strong anti-immigrant sentiment spreads into the political mainstream and right-wing parties soar in popularity ahead of several key elections this year, the ruling is bound to fan the flames of the long-simmering culture wars across the continent and especially in France.

The court addressed different complaints from two Muslim women — one from France and one from Belgium — who alleged that their respective employers had discriminated against them for wearing the Muslim head scarf, or hijab, to the office.

The judges concluded otherwise: “An internal rule ... which prohibits the visible wearing of any political, philosophical or religious sign does not constitute direct discrimination.”

Courts in France and Belgium will be left to settle the particular disputes in question.

The Netherlands will vote on Wednesday in parliamentary elections in which the far-right populist Geert Wilders has already succeeded in bringing his openly anti-Muslim views into the centre of public discourse.

In France, still reeling from a slew of terrorist attacks in the past two years perpetrated mostly by Islamic State militants or sympathizers with French and European passports, the farright National Front party is similarly on the rise.

In a strongly secular Europe home to a growing Muslim minority — especially sizable in France and Belgium — the cases present the oft-contradictory natures of two distinct liberties: the freedom of religion and the freedom of enterprise.

The tension between the two is particularly high in a France on the eve of a historic presidential election in which much of the debate has focused on issues of identity and culture. The place of Islam in French society has become a fixation across the political spectrum.

France is likely home to the largest Muslim population in Europe, and among the most visible traces of that community is the head scarf, seemingly an eternal source of controversy in a secular country committed to banning overt religious signs from public life.

Since the late 1980s, the Muslim veil has outraged the French political establishment, and the country has systematically policed what Muslim women can wear in public ever since.

In 2004, for instance, France banned the head scarf from its public schools, and in 2010, it became the first European country to ban the burka — the facecovering veil — altogether.