The move to outlaw “face-covering clothing — including the burqa” was announced last Friday by Rita Verdonk, the hardline immigration minister, five days before a general election. She said it was in the interests of “public order” and the “protection of citizens”.

Yesterday Verdonk insisted that the plan would reinforce the Dutch tradition of tolerance. “We think it’s very important for us that we can see each other, that we can communicate with each other. Because we are so tolerant, we want to respect each other,” she told a radio station.

CMO, the main Muslim organisation in Holland, said the government was guilty of an “overreaction to a very marginal problem”.

Verdonk’s opponents accused her of seizing on a populist issue to win votes in Wednesday’s poll and pledged to oppose the ban on legal and ethical grounds.

Verdonk’s Liberal VVD party, which forms part of a centre-right coalition, has seen a decline in support in recent weeks and is projected to lose seven of its 28 seats.

The timing of the announcement was criticised by opposition parties, which argued that the proposed ban could easily be thrown out by the incoming parliament.

“There are hardly any burqas in the Netherlands at all. This is a right-wing move to say our norms and values are of a higher order and Muslims have to behave the way we do,” said Jeroen Dijsselbloem, a Labour MP.

Abdou Menebhi, the Moroccan-born director of Emcemo, a Dutch organisation that helps immigrants to settle, warned that a “climate of discrimination” against Muslims in northern Europe was “breeding radicalism”. His comments reflect fears among Muslims that Holland, once one of the most welcoming nations for immigrants, is now at the forefront of a hardening of European attitudes.

The Dutch debate about burqas has resonance in Britain where Jack Straw, the former foreign secretary, has urged Muslim women to ditch the full veil. Sweden’s new integration minister has called for the criminalisation of arranged marriages and a ban on state funding of religious schools. Belgium has outlawed the burqa in five towns, including Antwerp.

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