To some this may surprise and to others, no surprise at all: I'm not in favor of banning the Burqa or any other form of clothing from public areas. Note I said clothing, and not "Religious Uniforms". To suggest that the notion of banning a veil is in some sort of way enacting powers of the "Fashion Police" is a complete misnomer. Nor is this is not some romantic notion of liberating French women, this is about religion. This is about Islam. This is about stopping a religious trend from taking over communities, society and even an entire nation. I just wish the people making the laws had the balls to admit to this.
So why don't I support any laws banning... I'll stop you right there. Me and "banning" don't go very well together. While I might not like the title, I am quite the liberal when it comes to laws. I like to adopt the view of
Penn Jillette: I would rather die from a gun shot fired from a legally held firearm than live in a country that banned their ownership. I like liberty, but I also like riot police; but that's for another day.
Why do we always try to resolve a situation by issuing laws that ban? Banning drugs, banning firearms, banning art, banning freedom of expression... These laws have never worked out to benefit society as they were planned to*. We should instead be looking towards becoming a more liberal world. That's why I think France would be better off legalising nudity on their streets than
banning a certain type of clothing. Think about it. What would counter a Muslim's stance on modesty more than to be greeted by a pair of breasts on the street. And what would Muhammad think of seeing a swinging penis as he bought a cup of coffee. "More dick with your coffee sir?" It's exactly the same technique that homosexuals adopt to combat the outrageous homophobia of the Westboro Baptist Church. Don't remove liberties; increase them!
The argument is this: the niqab must be banned because it is known that many women are forced into wearing it and this is a civil rights issue. Bullshit! You can be damn well sure that any woman "forced" to wear a burqa or niqab is having a shit load of other troubles thrown at her away from the public eye. Are you tackling those as well by the ban? No, it's purely to suit the "out of sight, out of mind" mentality. A quick fix to keep your perception of "Western" society alive. And what about Islamic women who want to wear the veil? You can argue all day whether this is really their own choice (some attach it's significance to that of like a woman who defends their abusive partner) but it is their choice nonetheless, and a strong choice for many women. And what about non-Islamic veils? What are the laws concerning them? Will France ban hoodies next, then what, scarves? Define a Burqa and define a Niqab anyway. The only way to prove a face veil is an Islamic head piece is to bring the person's religion into it, and bingo, that's when the shit will hit the fan. Point proved: this is a law about religion. And while I'm at it, what about makeup? Isn't that a "veil" many feel women under duress by social norms to wear every day? We all have have masks we wear.
Transitions can be hard. Living through a cultural one is particularly uncomfortable. Yes, Islam becoming a dominant factor within a country is something to be worried about (we have fought hard to secularise the state and religion over the years) but does it's appearance mean the automatic erosion of a countries "long standing" traditions? Be it that way or not, tradition is something that we can afford to loose or alter: liberty is not. Whether our liberty is threatened directly by an emerging Islamic majority or by archaic laws determined to counteract the effects of Islam, we must not surrender our freedoms. Nothing pleases a government more than an excuse to gain more "control" over it's peoples. Another ill conceived ban undermines us all.
The irony of all this is very simple: You know who loves banning stuff too? The fucking Taliban, that's who! If you want to ban something, have the balls to ban Islam outright, and tackle the resultant Jihad face on.
As a side note, Muslims must love the internet. Sure, there's a shit load of porn and stuff but look at how business is done. A woman can order a big pile of crap from online stores and never even have to show her finger nails to the person [conglomerate] she's buying from. And what about terrorism. The internet has been proven to speed up terrorism communication by at least 421% Yep, all in all I'm pretty sure the internet is a good place to be if you're a Muslim. Don't forget websites dedicated to tips on growing beards as well.
*Governments like to promise a lot when they ban something, these promises rarely relate to anything other than appeasing the masses to garner votes for themselves. Often a ban will have no relevance to the underlying issue. This is the premise of the entire post.
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original Niqab image] [
Westboro Baptist Church image] [
other images]
[Related: Encoding Video In An Image File]
Why do we always try to resolve a situation by issuing laws that ban? Banning drugs, banning firearms, banning art, banning freedom of expression... These laws have never worked out to benefit society as they were planned to*. We should instead be looking towards becoming a more liberal world. That's why I think France would be better off legalising nudity on their streets than banning a certain type of clothing. Think about it. What would counter a Muslim's stance on modesty more than to be greeted by a pair of breasts on the street. And what would Muhammad think of seeing a swinging penis as he bought a cup of coffee. "More dick with your coffee sir?" It's exactly the same technique that homosexuals adopt to combat the outrageous homophobia of the Westboro Baptist Church. Don't remove liberties; increase them!
The argument is this: the niqab must be banned because it is known that many women are forced into wearing it and this is a civil rights issue. Bullshit! You can be damn well sure that any woman "forced" to wear a burqa or niqab is having a shit load of other troubles thrown at her away from the public eye. Are you tackling those as well by the ban? No, it's purely to suit the "out of sight, out of mind" mentality. A quick fix to keep your perception of "Western" society alive. And what about Islamic women who want to wear the veil? You can argue all day whether this is really their own choice (some attach it's significance to that of like a woman who defends their abusive partner) but it is their choice nonetheless, and a strong choice for many women. And what about non-Islamic veils? What are the laws concerning them? Will France ban hoodies next, then what, scarves? Define a Burqa and define a Niqab anyway. The only way to prove a face veil is an Islamic head piece is to bring the person's religion into it, and bingo, that's when the shit will hit the fan. Point proved: this is a law about religion. And while I'm at it, what about makeup? Isn't that a "veil" many feel women under duress by social norms to wear every day? We all have have masks we wear.
As a side note, Muslims must love the internet. Sure, there's a shit load of porn and stuff but look at how business is done. A woman can order a big pile of crap from online stores and never even have to show her finger nails to the person [conglomerate] she's buying from. And what about terrorism. The internet has been proven to speed up terrorism communication by at least 421% Yep, all in all I'm pretty sure the internet is a good place to be if you're a Muslim. Don't forget websites dedicated to tips on growing beards as well.
