Netherlands to ban the burqa: anti-Islam MP says

[Gerald]

The Netherlands will ban the burqa, anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders said Thursday following the announcement of a pact to form a minority coalition government backed by his party.

"There will also be a burqa ban," Wilders told journalists in The Hague, announcing measures agreed on by three parties negotiating to form a new government.

The measures, which seek to cut government spending by 18 billion euros by 2015, should also halve the number of immigrants who enter the Netherlands, the politician said.

"A new wind will blow in the Netherlands," Wilders said, standing alongside presumed prime minister in waiting Mark Rutte, who leads the pro-business VVD party, and Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) leader Maxime Verhagen -- the two parties set to be in government.

http://www.expatica.com/nl/news/dutc...ys_100069.html


Note:30/09/2010

Claire Berlinski is a freelance journalist who lives in Istanbul. She is the author of Menace in Europe: Why the Continent’s Crisis Is America’s, Too, and There Is No Alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters. This article first appeared in the August 16, 2010.

The French National Assembly’s recent vote to ban face-covering veils including the burqa, were the latest such measure taken by governments in Europe.

..the burqa must be banned. All forms of veiling must be, if not banned, strongly discouraged and stigmatized. The arguments against a ban are coherent and principled. They are also shallow and insufficient. They fail to take something crucial into account, and that thing is this: If Europe does not stand up now against veiling — and the conception of women and their place in society that it represents — within a generation there will be many cities in Europe where no unveiled woman will walk comfortably or safely.

Veiling cannot be disambiguated from the problem of Islam’s conception of women, and this conception is directly tied to gender apartheid and the subjugation and abuse of women throughout the Islamic world, the greatest human-rights problem on the planet, bar none. Nor can the practice of veiling be divorced from the concept of namus — an ethical category that is often translated as “honor,” and if your first association with this word is “honor killing,” it is for a reason: That is the correct association. The path from veiling to the practice of killing unveiled women is not nearly so meandering as you might think.

Like all freedoms, religious freedom is not absolute. It is said in the United States that the Constitution is not a suicide pact, and this principle is applicable to any open society.

Banning the burqa is without doubt a terrible assault on the ideal of religious liberty. It is the sign of a desperate society. No one wishes for things to have come so far that it is necessary.
But they have, and it is.

Claire Berlinski is a freelance journalist who lives in Istanbul. She is the author of Menace in Europe: Why the Continent’s Crisis Is America’s, Too, and There Is No Alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters. This article first appeared in the August 16, 2010 ....

http://www.nationalreview.com/articl...rlinski?page=1

[GoldenRivet]

they are all taking steps in the right direction.

these are just laws which should be carried out.

you just try walking into a bank in Texas with a ball cap and sunglasses on... let alone a full veil burqa

[Gerald]

These steps towards a ban will come true in many other countries, which I think is right!

[Stealth Hunter]

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

you just try walking into a bank in Texas with a ball cap and sunglasses on... let alone a full veil burqa

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/us/...bery.guns.khou

Carry a firearm on you (either concealed or open)? GO ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS. Face coverings? STOP RIGHT THERE, CRIMINAL SCUM.

Makes perfect sense.

[Torvald Von Mansee]

I am in agreement that face coverings will be abused by the criminal element. However, I also think you need to define the criminal element a little more narrowly.

[DarkFish]

IMO, it's not just about safety. Whenever I talk to someone, I want to see who I'm talking to. I want to be able to look him/her in the eyes.
Being able to is part of Western culture. If you do not want to comply to that, fine, but stay wherever you come from

Whenever I talk to someone, I want to see who I'm talking to.

Said Ray Charles

If you do not want to comply to that, fine, but stay wherever you come from

Rotterdam?

[gimpy117]

Honestly, religious or not...its a from a oppression against women. I like this ban.

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

they are all taking steps in the right direction.

these are just laws which should be carried out.

you just try walking into a bank in Texas with a ball cap and sunglasses on... let alone a full veil burqa

You know its funny, I was entering a bank the other day, they have this infographic sign basically says no hats, no glasses, and something else that slips my mind. But when I saw that I had exactly that thought... "Wonder how they would react to a Burka".

But I'm just extremist and reactionary.

Also I would be willing to bet that the vast majority of pepole whom enter a bank with a fire arm harboring ill will are NOT registered carriers of said firearm.