Burka ban 'crosses red line', senior rabbi warns Pinchas Goldschmidt, the chief rabbi of Moscow, says a court ruling upholding France's ban on wearing a burka in public "crossed a red line"
Europe's most senior rabbi has issued an impassioned defence of the right of Muslim women to wear a burka in public.
Pinchas Goldschmidt, the president of the Conference of European Rabbis, said that 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 that 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.