From The Evening Standard:
France was today poised to vote into law a ban on the wearing of burkas in public. The ban would affect only a tiny minority of Muslim women, estimated at less than 2,000, but Muslims believe it is another blow to their religion and risks increasing religious hatred.
? What's more likely to cause 'religious hatred' - seeing women who look a bit foreign, but otherwise the same as the rest of us, or women - especially in groups - swanning about in burkas as a deliberate 'up yours' to the rest of us?
Or do they mean 'the Islamists will hate their host societies even more'? Their contempt for us is already off the scale, so who cares about that?
In any event, religion has nothing to do with this, it's purely a cultural thing, and wearing burkas simply ain't our culture, any more than is carrying weapons etc.
Tuesday, 14 September 2010
Can somebody explain this to me?
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10 comments:
I don't believe for a second that this is about culture or burkas or veils. That's just a smokescreen.
States generally don't give a stuff about that kind of thing. What they want is power and the ability of people to protest anonymously, or evade the all seeing eye of surveillance with clothing, is a threat to that.
When a state bans the wearing of face coverings in public, I doubt the real target is ever the one they claim.
But if you wished to carry a weapon, wearing a burka would be a fairly good way of disguising it.
Oh, I haven't missed the point, have I?
I think it's just French politics. They nearly elected that Le Penn bloke a few years back. Sarkozy has to bash the burkas and gypos a bit to have a chance of staying in power basically.
"...and wearing burkas simply ain't our culture, any more than is carrying weapons etc."
Nor are lots of things. But so what? Don't we pride ourselves on our tolerance?
It's one thing to forbid people from wearing one while receiving state services, or allowing private companies to do so without fear of prosecution (and especially, forbidding them to DRIVE in the damned things!), but banning it on a public street is going to far.
How about a bit of vox populi vox dei.
If the french dont want burkas well bully for them. It is called democracy.
@ All. I'm not debating the merits or otherwise of this, I'm asking the simple question: how does a burka ban increase religious hatred?
Because you can claim it is cultural and not religious, and even be right. But that's not how it's going to be seen and -more importantly - portrayed...
"Don't we pride ourselves on our tolerance?"
I used to, but I'm all out of both pride and tolerance right now.
It seems like a win-win situation to me. If France goes all the way and bans it:
- people who are in favour of a ban in this country will have their argument strengthened.
- people who oppose a ban will have to concede that Britain is special and different from continental Europe, strengthening national identity and weakening arguments for increased EU integration.
The burka ban increases religious hatred in the same way that the ban on revealing clothing does in some muslim countries.
Maybe muslim countries ought to set a good example and allow revealing clothing?
JM, yeah, but 'portrayed' by whom? The Islamists will say it's 'religious' hatred, but I do not believe that the ban will increase the amount of 'religious hatred' i.e. huge public mistrust of Islamists.
TM, I like that win-win position!
Ed, you managed to answer the question (I think). The answer being 'not at all' (if I understand correctly).
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