Burka ban 'crosses red line' - rabbi

Europe's most senior rabbi has issued an impassioned defence of the right of Muslim women to wear a burka in public.

Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, said a European Court of Human Rights ruling upholding France's ban on veils "crossed a red line" for religious freedom.

In an article for Telegraph.co.uk he said he was "deeply suspicious" of claims that the prohibition on wearing a burka or a niqab in public was designed to promote relations between communities.

The orthodox rabbi warned that religious communities across Europe were feeling increasingly "disaffected and marginalised".

On Tuesday the Conference of European Rabbis ruled that France's law banning the wearing of burkas and niqabs in public did not breach the human rights of Muslim women.

The European court accepted the French government's argument that the veil ban was justified in the interests of social cohesion.

The plaintiff in the Conference of European Rabbis case, who was not named, described herself as a 24-year-old female graduate who is a "devout Muslim".

She insisted that neither her husband nor any other member of her family put pressure on her to wear veils. The French law carries a fine of R2200 or lessons in French citizenship.