THE HAGUE, February 6 (IslamOnline.net) - The Dutch anti-immigration party List Pim Fortuyn (LPS) has called on Parliament to enact a law banning hijab in public areas, including schools, courts and other administrative bodies owned or financed by the government.

The jurists and teachers should shun out whatever throwing doubt on their neutrality, LPS MP Eerdmans Joost said Wednesday, February 4.

Joost, one of eight party members in the legislature, said that clothes that portary one's religious affiliations should be rather abandoned at work and only worn at home.

The statements are to revive controversy on the religious signs as that now raging on in France, where a ban in state-runs schools is to to take into effect as of next academic year in September.

The LPS had earlier called on former Justice Minister Korthals to prevent employees from putting on religious insignia. But Korthals did not take the proposal seriously, leaving open the issue with no real discussion.

Unlike his predecessor, current Justice Minister Donner promised to issue a ban on the religious dresses among justices and lawyers.

The minister even urged other ministers to follow suit, the MP Joost told Nederlands Dagbald newspaper.

The MP Joost said that the party did not want the Dutch citizens to clash with court employee in ostensible religious signs.

These signs are disturbing, and the public sector should stay away from showing personal - including religious - beliefs, he said.

Asked whether Christian insignia should be included in the proposed ban, the far-right extremist parliamentarian said they are cultural rather than religious symbols.

Unlike hijab, Christian signs are not of religious implications, he said, but added that skullcaps of Judaism and turbans should be also abandoned.

Joose said the LPS seeks to maintain secular principles in the country, noting that Islamic groups pose a genuine threat accordingly.

Analsysts ruled out the country would ban religious insiginia thanks to numerous considertaions.

Religious eductation in The Netherlands is different from that in France, as religious schools are financed by the government here.

The ruling Christian Democrats (CDA) would also fight any move towards the ban, as it would be hostile towards its support base, mostly conservatives connected with Catholic and Protestant schools.

Hijab-clad women are also taking up top posts in the country, including in the justice bodies, as the government attempts to integrate Muslims - estimated at one million of the overall 16 million population.

Hijab is no obstacle to the integration of women in Holland, as hijab-clad Muslims have achieved a remarkable success in various fields of study and work, Rabiaa Bouhalhoul, a Dutch official, told IslamOnline.net on Tuesday, January 27.

As Muslims are growing in The Netherlands, accounting for 6% of the population, they have established over the past 30 years hundreds of religious, social and cultural organizations, many of which receive grants from the Dutch authorities.

Analaysts said that the LPS's calls for hijab ban could be an attempt to attrcat attention of media outlet after the assassination of its founder.

The party got only eight seats in 2003 elections, and analysts belive it would be dismantled after getting empty-handed in coming 2006 elections.

The LPF was a vehicle for Pim Fortuyn, a right-wing populaist known for his anti-Islam rants including that "I am also in favour of a cold war with Islam" and "I see Islam as an extraordinary threat, as a hostile society".

Since Fortuyn's murder it has begun falling apart.

"We feel like orphans," admitted the party's new leader Mat Herben, a pocket-sized former Defense Ministry civil servant was quoted by the Guardian as saying.

But challenges are still there.

Former Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende’s far-right coalition collapsed in 2002, with the move mainly blamed on the squabbles created by his party which is infamous for its xenophobia platform and anti-Muslim stances.

Muslim women took to the streets of Helmond city, southeast of the Netherlands, to protest a decision by the city's municipality to withhold an annual grant for a government-aided social organization, allocated for women-only swimming classes.

In May 2002, the buildings of Ibn Khaldoun Islamic school, south of Rotterdam, had come under attacks.

The attacks were largely blamed on extremist Dutch groups, particularly that several major Dutch towns, which host Muslim and foreign communities, have been theater for anti-Arab and Muslim propaganda since the 9/11 attacks.

Police then said the five were driven by Xenophobia and hatred of Arabs and Muslims in particular, said the police statement.