Muslim eyes aren't smiling -- Dutch to ban the burqa

Associated Press reports that the Dutch cabinet is moving to ban veils that fully cover the face, such as the burqa worn by some Muslim women. The usual multiculti suspects are already wringing their hands, calling the measure illiberal, and an attack on the rights of women to dress as they please. Walt calls this argument politically correct rubbish!

Just to be clear -- and Walt has been thanked before for explaining this -- the burqa is a full-body garment that acts as a barrier between its wearers and those around them. Even the wearers' eyes are hidden. The Dutch law does not appear to include the niqab, the veil covering only part of the face, leaving the eyes visible. More Muslim women wear the niqab, in Europe as well as America, and this in spite of bans previously adopted by France and Belgium.

Muslim women who choose (or are forced) to wear such traditional costumes are sending a disturbing message. They are not making a fashion statement. They are saying, in effect, that women and men are not equal, and that neither can be trusted to even look at the other.

But never mind, say the wimmin's rights whiners. After all, in the Netherlands only 100 or so Muslim women wear the burqa. How, then, are the rest of us threatened? Why should it be necessary to make its wearing a criminal offence?

Here's the answer. We all make certain sacrifices to live in and enjoy a healthy secular democracy. [Is that really what we have here? Ed.] Showing one's face in public so as not to make the majority of society nervous and uncomfortable is a pretty small sacrifice to ask for.

As for the argument that not many Dutch women choose (or are forced) to wear the burqa, let us suppose that only 100 Dutch women chose (or were forced) to walk out in public naked. Would that make it OK, then? Even in the liberal Netherlands, you can be arrested for public nudity. Why? Because it makes the rest of us nervous and uncomfortable.

Human beings are social creatures, and operate according to a set of social norms, however broad these might be. Being totally covered or totally uncovered is, in a word, anti-social.

It is said that the eyes are the windows of the soul. If we can't see the looker's eyes, he becomes virtually soulless. That's why the police and the military love sunglasses, especially mirrored sunglasses. They intimidate the lookees.

Putting a barrier in front of one's features can only alienate people from each other. Of course, this is precisely what the burqa is designed to do -- to act as a barrier between Muslim women and the rest of us. It is not just anti-social, but barbaric. The sooner it's banned, the better. And to hell with political correctness.