PARIS (AP) -- A top Muslim group in Britain lashed out at Nicolas Sarkozy as ''patronizing and offensive'' on Tuesday, after the French president said body- and face-covering Islamic garments such as the burqa turn women into prisoners.

In Paris, parliament formally created a commission Tuesday to study the wearing of body-cloaking Muslim robes in France, a day after Sarkozy told lawmakers that the burqa would not be welcome in the country.

A top official with the Muslim Council of Britain, an umbrella organization for British Muslim groups, accused Sarkozy of ''divisive politics,'' and said his comments could fan an ''Islamophobic reaction'' in Europe.

''It is patronizing and offensive to suggest that those Muslim women who wear the burqa do so because of pressure or oppression by their male partners or guardians,'' the council's assistant secretary-general, Reefat Drabu, said in a statement. ''Such suggestions can legitimately be perceived as antagonistic towards Islam.''

In Paris, the 32-member commission set up by parliament, with members from France's four major political parties, will hold hearings that could lead to legislation banning burqas from being worn in public -- a move a top human rights group said would be counterproductive.

''Banning the burqa will not give freedom to women,'' Jean-Marie Fardeau, director of the Paris office of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. ''It will only stigmatize and marginalize women who wear it.''

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http://nytimes.com/aponline/2009/06/23/world/AP-EU-France-Burqa.html