BRUSSELS, April 22 (UPI) -- An anticipated Belgian Parliament vote on banning wearing the Islamic burqa in public Thursday was disrupted when the country's coalition government collapsed.
Prime Minister Yves Leterme tendered his resignation after a key Flemish party member quit the 5-month-old coalition, throwing the government into crisis slightly more than two months before the country takes over the rotating EU presidency.
It was not immediately clear if Belgian King Albert II would accept Leterme's resignation, Voice of America reported.
The Belgian Federal Parliament was expected to approve a law banning burqas after a parliamentary committee unanimously recommended a nationwide ban on clothes -- including veils -- that prevent wearers from being fully identified.
It would have been the first clampdown of its kind on the Continent.
A burqa is an enveloping outer garment worn by women in some Islamic traditions for the purpose of hiding their body in public.
The ban, which some legal scholars said might be unconstitutional, would also apply to niqabs, veils that cover the face as part of a head covering worn by some traditional Muslim women.
French-speaking liberal Reformist lawmaker Denis Ducarme, who drafted the measure, rejected suggestions the legislation smacks of intolerance, saying it is the burqa -- and "the Islamic movement" -- that are truly intolerant and dangerous, CNN reported.
He added he was "proud that Belgium would be the first country in Europe which dares to legislate on this sensitive matter," The New York Times reported.
Ducarme estimated 300 to 400 women in the country wear the niqab or the burqa.
About 281,000 Muslims live in Belgium, Washington's Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life estimated, making the country about 3 percent Muslim.
