Excerpt:
An outright ban of the wearing of the burka in France would help stem the spread of the "cancer" of radical Islam, according to the country's Muslim minister for urban regeneration.
Fadela Amara, who is of Algerian descent, said the veil and headscarf combination covering everything but the eyes represented "the oppression of women, their enslavement, their humiliation".
In an interview with the Financial Times, Ms Amara said she was "in favour of the burka not existing in my country".
With sexual oppression and poverty, she said, Muslim women suffered "a third form of oppression – extreme religiosity, the presence of fundamentalist groups who continue to propagate their discourse".