... the cabinet agreed that burqas would be banned for government workers and at schools. On Friday, the government is expected to announce that burqas will also be banned from public transport.
And for those of you cynical enough to believe that all of this has anything to do with Islamophobia, the ban, if introduced, will also apply to balaclavas and crash helmets.
De Volkskrant writes that a ban on burqas was first proposed by Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders in 2005, but the previous cabinet never got round to it as a result of internal divisions.
The current government coalition has decided against a general ban on burqas, arguing that a ban is only justified when the garment in question ‘seriously hampers integration and communication’.
However, when this is the case, societal interests outweigh religious freedoms such as the wearing of burqas.
It will come as no surprise that the Freedom Party does not think the ban is going far enough, and has submitted a bill banning the wearing of burqas not only in all public spaces, but also at home.
The burqa is a portable concentration camp for women. It is, indeed, anti-freedom and therefore anti-Western.
Three cheers for the Netherlands.
4 comments:
A good decision by the Dutch government. New Labour haven't got the backbone to take such steps in the UK.
Sadly.
See my video on this subject:
Ban The Veil
You will see my avatar presenting the video and making the point about balaclavas and crash helmets.
Cool.
Feel free to post your videos here any time, Ray.
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