Ed Stourton asked for our views on the burqa. I didn’t know he cared, but now I do, here’s mine.
I hate the burqa because it tells me that the wearer hates me. On the other hand, it’s hilarious. I’m against banning it because using the law as a sticking plaster to cover a self-inflicted wound is too little too late.
Anyway, banning the burqa would give them yet another thing to gripe about. Better to simply stop pandering to an ideology that we should never have encouraged in the first place. Stop building special toilets and prayer rooms and don’t put up with ridiculous anti-human cultural practices.
It’s daft to argue that it’s liberating to be free to advertise your ideological opposition to liberty. Waving banners saying “down with democracy!” is as pointless as campaigning against campaigning.
The ‘liberal’ pro burqa argument, that it’s no different to a hoodie or a crash helmet, a balaclava or a disguise, skirts round the issue. What makes us uneasy isn’t really our concern that the woman might have been coerced. Nor is related to claims that strict modesty regulations aren’t a genuine requisite of the amorphous mystery that people call ‘true Islam,’ or the ‘real’, or the ‘continuity’ Islam I’ve just invented.
No it’s the simple fact that we don’t like anyone flaunting alien beliefs. We don’t like people wearing SS uniforms, specially Prince Harry. We don’t like it, but it’s not illegal. If I want to wear a burqa to a fancy dress party, let me, please.
There’s no law against parading around in jackboots and swastikas. A law’s unnecessary because Hitler’s ideology is considered unacceptable. If you do go round dressed as a Nazi you limit your credibility as a member of HRW or some such. If it took a whole new law to indicate that we see burqa wearing as a symbol of defiance and perfidiousness and that Britain disapproves, it would be more of a sadness than a triumph.
Tell Ed Stourton and the BBC to stop self-hating and resume normal service as soon as possible. Back to core values. Then it might not be necessary to resort to banning the burqa by law because people might just not want to wear the wretched garment.
