CANBERRA, Australia – Muslim women would have to remove veils and show their faces to police on request or risk a prison sentence under a proposed new law in Australia’s most populous state.

A vigorous debate that the proposal has triggered reflects the cultural clashes being ignited by the growing influx of Muslim immigrants, as well as the unease that visible symbols of Islam have caused in predominantly white Christian Australia ever since 1973, when the government relaxed its immigration policy.

Under the law proposed by the government of New South Wales, which includes Sydney, a woman who defies police by refusing to remove her face veil could be sentenced to a year in prison and fined $5,900.

 

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