Full face covers, known as burqa or niqab, are encouraged for women by some extremist Muslim sects. These groups’ pathological sexual obsessions dictate to them that even the visibility of a woman’s face is sexually provocative. And of course, in our PC culture, no one dares tell them that they are sick and in need of psychiatric attention. What is more, no one has seemingly been realizing that women (or maybe some of them are men?) roaming about cities incognito represent a risk to public safety.
But that is finally beginning to change.
The tide has been turning in Australia for some time. First, their most populous state New South Wales (where Sydney is) allowed the police to ask suspects to remove their face covers, and now Western Australia has followed suit. The reason? A criminal quite literally hid behind her veil-and walked free.
Matthews was originally given a six-month jail sentence after being found guilty of falsely accusing a senior constable of forcibly trying to remove her burqa when she was pulled over while driving in Woodbine in Sydney’s south west in June 2010.
She was later acquitted on appeal after the prosecution could not prove she was the woman who signed the statement while wearing the garment.
And Britain learned the same lesson the hard way-or rather failed to:
One dull afternoon in late autumn, a 27-year-old British man of Somali origin, with uneven teeth and chubby cheeks, became the latest terror suspect to disappear, making a mockery of the UK security services, police and judiciary.
After spending several hours in the dilapidated An-Noor Masjid (mosque) and community centre on Church Road in Acton, west London, he sliced off his electronic tag, slipped on a burka and vanished.
As any thriller writer knows, mounting an escape in a burka is one of the oldest tricks in the book. When the investigating officers watched CCTV footage of Mohamed’s escape, did they recall the case of Yassin Omar, the failed 21/7 bomber who evaded them by wearing a burka belonging to his mother-in-law?
Or that of Mustaf Jama, the Somali asylum seeker who killed PC Sharon Beshenivsky in 2005 before fleeing Britain dressed in a niqab, using his sister’s passport?
In the meantime, by virtue of being British, the British are still debating whether to ban or not to ban the veil.
France, being generally the least likely western nation to adhere to political correctness when religion is concerned, has had laws on the books against veils since 2011. Of course, that hasn’t stopped radical Muslims from committing acts like these:
Police say a crowd of possibly 400 Muslims gathered outside the Trappes police station in response to the arrest on July 18 of a man who had assaulted a police officer during an identity check on his wife, who was entirely veiled.
The niqab-wearing woman in question is 20-years-old; her 21-year-old husband, a convert to Islam, reportedly objected to the policeman interrogating his wife, and allegedly tried to strangle him, an act that lead to his arrest. Muslims insist the man was provoked.
After police in Trappes rejected Muslim demands to release the husband, the mob went on a rampage, throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at police, pelting police with firecrackers from rooftops, burning cars and trucks and destroying public property, including several bus stops, before being repelled by riot police.
And not for the first time, either.
In the southern French city of Marseille, Muslims went on a rampage a year ago, in July 2012, after police ordered an 18-year-old woman Muslim woman who was wearing a niqab to show her identity card. The woman refused: “I don’t obey the laws of the French Republic,” she said, and allegedly bit one of the officers. Scuffles then broke out, with around 50 Muslims present, including the woman’s partner. Three police officers were injured.
Four people, including the woman and her partner, were arrested and taken to a police station, but were released shortly afterwards “in a gesture of appeasement during Ramadan,” according to the public prosecutor.
And French speakers on this side of the Atlantic seem to have a no-nonsense attitude, which nonetheless falls short compared to their brethren: they will ban ostentatious religious symbols for civil servants at work. Come to think of it, when you go to a government office, the person meeting you represents your government, so why should he/she be also representing a religion, that may not be yours?
The Parti Quebecois said its bill would entrench “religious neutrality” in the provincial charter of rights.
Islamic headscarves, crucifixes, Sikh turbans and Jewish skullcaps would be banned if they are “plainly visible.”
“Smaller” religious symbols would be permitted.
No one would be allowed to offer government services with their faces covered, a reference to the Islamic burka and niqab.
Polls indicate a majority of French Quebecers support restrictions on religious symbols while English and minority groups are largely against the measures.
But political analyst Jean Lapierre said Tuesday that he’s certain the bill will not pass before the next general election.
Such a move would give Premier Pauline Marois a chance to sell her secularism charter to French voters who are crucial to any majority government in the province.
There are places in the world where secularism is a political winner! In the US that is about unheard of. Speaking of which, it is not likely that the veil ban will come to the US any time soon, even the least Islam-friendly parts, due to emphasis that is placed on religious freedom here. Unfortunately, it is quite likely that a criminal incident involving the veil may happen in the US as well, just like Britain and Australia. And when it does, things may change.
