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Ban the Burka, Burka, Burka prison, Defend the modern world, Feminism, France, Guardian, Hijab, Imprisonment of women, Islamisation, Liberal Feminism, Liberalism, liberty, Niqāb, veil, West, Western Feminism, Western world
A few months ago on this blog, I wrote that I could not support a move to ban the Islamic veil in Britain. The reasons I put forward in support of this stance were straightforwardly libertarian:
“It’s true that the Burka (actually called a ‘Niqab’) has no place on English streets, and it’s also true that the veil is impractical and hazardous in many social contexts… But that said, I don’t want to live in a country where the government can decide what people may wear… Should we concede to government the power to choose how we dress, there would be no turning back. The outlawing of the veil could soon become the outlawing of hoodies, baseball caps and any other item of clothing which obscures identity.”
Well, I’ve changed my mind. There has been no particular catalyst for this, or at least not one I can identify, but I regard the reasoning quoted above as adolescent and knee-jerk. Those who objected to my post were correct. The veil is a revolting garment, an affront to women and a moral stain on the standard of our whole society. It should be outlawed across the continent of Europe.
In the same post alluded to above, I went on to say that a ban – as well as being undesirable – would be difficult to enforce. This is now an argument that can be turned the other way. A confrontation with Islamic misogyny in England is just what we require, and the more aggressive, public and discomforting to the multicultural idea it is, so much the better.
D, LDN.
Defend the Modern World 
Ban inside buildings but permit in street as can be used by spies/police.
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It’s often confusing and intimidating to children in the street. We should ban it completely in my opinion.
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Yes.
I am a woman.
I think it should be banned. It is the functional equivalent of the KKK hood and robe, or of a Nazi swastika armband; a statement of aggressive supremacism and hostile intent toward all who refuse to the Submit to the system that it encodes.
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Right move, I think. Objection to the burqa, veil, niqab etc. is usually framed in feminist or other terms with people saying such things as “I have no problem with Islam but we need to be able to see each other’s faces” etc.
But we would be better to be honest about the over-arching reason we object to these garments: they are symbols of Islam, an ideology we want see take over our country and our culture about as much as we wanted to see Nazism take it over in the 1940s. (In fact, Godwin’s “Law” disregarded, Islam has a lot in common with National Socialism, which explains why Mein Kampf is a bestseller in the Middle East.)
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Indeed, but it’s unlikely we’ll witness that kind of honesty in the press any time soon. As you say, almost all of the anti-veil coverage is based on practical considerations like airport security etc… I stopped down in Istanbul on my way to Korea, and even in that cosmopolitan, Westernised city, the sight of all these waddling ghost-women was unnerving. There are already too many in London.
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Like every sleazy muslim tactic to increase colonization, the veil is a red herring. Why, it’s just a woman covering herself! It’s her right! Really!? Considering how much it contravenes the idea of rights, for women and non muslims, I’d have to agree with you that it is nothing short of revolting. It embodies the right to wear your hate on your sleeve, as it were. What a perverted interpretation of civil rights. The veil should act as a lightening rod to galvanize opinion about the lurking subtext behind it. It isn’t just a veil but a symbol. The time for word games and excuses is over. The future for Europe and the UK is not looking so rosy these days and the more of these fucking veils I see the more it sickens me. And we all know why it isn’t something that belongs in our society. I worry about you guys.
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What’s truly disturbing is the number of native women converting to Islam and adopting the veil voluntarily. Female converts from the West are often very enthusiastic about wearing it. Perhaps they’ve bought into the pseudo-feminist narrative which says that Western women are just as oppressed by the expectation of beauty.
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I think it’s probably a combination of the pseudo-feminist narrative and the rush of feeling that they’re “shocking” people, “rebelling” against ordinary society, etc. Probably most of these women didn’t get much attention before, and some of them may have boundary issues, so getting to drape themselves all over and feel that they’re attracting attention and hiding at the same time gives them a thrill.
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Is it a major problem or isn’t? women can make their own mind without pressure.
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It’s a threat to law and order. Airports, schools and other important places should not allow the complete shrouding of identity. It invites terrorism.
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Yes. That is the primary why the Slave Mask – which is how I refer to the niqab, yashmak and burqa – should be *banned* in all non-Muslim-majority societies.
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And there is also the moral aspect to the issue. It imprisons women and denies them self-expression.
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Very true ,self -expression is the essence of living free.Best regards
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“It imprisons women and denies them self-expression.”
I don’t agree with this statement. A woman can freely choose to wear the Niqab. Even though we feel like they are being brainwashed to dressing this way, we have to respect those who genuinely choose to where the Niqab.
As long as they do not pose any real threat to everyone else, I have no reason whatsoever to complain about women who where the Niqab.
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They can wear whatever they like in a Muslim country. In an open society like our own, it is a security threat. Even moderate Muslim states like Tunisia have banned it.
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“I don’t want to live in a country where the government can decide what people may wear” The Government does ban wearing Swastika armbands and SS uniforms(even though they look snappy- designed by Hugo Boss).
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You say that, though I have seen people in full blown Nazi outfits at historical events once or twice. It was even quite eerie. That said, the government does place limits on what people can wear (and not wear). If you’ve ever been out on a Saturday night in any British town you’d probably wish those limits were stricter! All decorum has gone now.
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I think you can make a case that SS uniforms are designed to incite hatred against a specific minority.
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Glad you came around on this issue DMTW. There are a few issues about the burkah and niqab:
1. It prevents cultural integration and enforces the “otherness” of the veil-wearer.
2. It is nearly impossible to detect physical abuse on veiled women.
3. It can be used by criminals (even men dressed as muslim women) to perpetrate crime.
4. It restricts peripheral vision – dangerous to pedestrians and motorists in the city.
5. It causes vitamin D deficiency.
6. It is itself a hate symbol, representative of a hateful ideology.
7. In matters of official interaction, it abets fraud (or perjury) as humans judge honesty mostly through facial expressions.
8. It stigmatizes non-veil wearing muslim women in their communities, who feel social pressure to visibly conform.
I could go on and on…
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That’s an excellent set of reasons there. It really is quite disgraceful this garment hasn’t been banned yet in the West. But I sometimes think of the what will happen, as and when it ever is banned.
Only today, I had reason to visit Slough, here in England. It was like a third world country. The majority of people I saw were non-white and about half of those were dressed in utterly foreign Islamic garments, whether they were from Africa, Pakistan or Bangladesh. They were speaking in other languages and invariably had children in pushchairs (whereas, as we know, native English women – especially the more intelligent and “empowered” usually do not). “Empowered” – right, to end their own civilisation. The state pays people – anyone – to have children here in the UK, whether they are legitimate or illegitimate, born to Islamic non-English parents or otherwise.
As the numbers grow, though, perhaps it is better to act sooner rather than later to end the unmandated backward cultural takeover of our country, even if this incurs the wrath of both the millions of people I describe who are already here in the UK, and their “brothers and sisters” in the countries with which they most identify…
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Have you noticed also that these places with significant Muslim populations are quite close to each other. There is a column of settlement stretching up the country from the Middle South/South East up through Birmingham to the North. The fringes of England (Shropshire, Lincolnshire, Cornwall, Norfolk, Suffolk, Tyneside etc..) are relatively unenriched. The layout is there for a contiguous Islamic society along the spine of England. Each base expands every year and so they will eventually make contact with one another. This is a far greater problem than disconnected pockets springing up over a broad area (as in France). I suppose it’s the natural product of cultural incestuousness.
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I’d never thought of No. 2. Very interesting (if disturbing) point.
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Yep.
Agree on all points. And it should be noted that merely for refusing to wear the Slave Hood (that is, forms of the Islamic “veil” that do still leave the face visible) Muslim girls in the West have been threatened, or even *killed* – look up “Aqsa Parvez”, “Canada” to find one such case.
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