I don't usually read "The Star" of the UK, but I came across "Spooks unmask burka death squads" recently. Are the figures right? I don't know, except that the one of 2,200 people on a "watch list" is a figure revealed last year by MI6, and if anything I would guess it might be on the low side.
Daniel Pipes has been keeping count of the number of crimes committed by people -- men and women --- wearing niqabs or burkas. It runs into the hundreds of cases and counting.
Apart from security concerns, the two other main reasons to object to niqabs and burkas are:
1. They are a symbol of oppression of women: both by their men, and by their peers. OR, if not this, then, necessarily...
2. They are a symbol of the piousness of the wearer. The more pious the wearer, the more adherence to the core doctrine of Islam. The core doctrine of Islam is for Islam to be "triumphant" in the world.
Update: "Dance of the post-modern veils". Steyn on the Oz burka case, in National Review Online, 21 June:
So, if I follow correctly, we can never establish the identity of the woman who falsely accused the police of demanding she remove her burka because to establish her identity the police would have to demand she remove her burka thereby rendering her false accusation true.
Update (II): Not only security concerns, or "mistaken" identity concerns, (or symbols of oppression or symbols of piousness), they're also rude! Hugo Rifkind in the Speccie on 24th July 2010 "All women have the right to wear the burka, but they shouldn't -- it's just rude":
Security concerns aside, of course, women should have the 'right' to wear the burka, anywhere they like. But that doesn’t mean it’s not an inherently repellent garment, the wearing of which, in Britain, is basically just rude. So stop it....
Update: "Dance of the post-modern veils". Steyn on the Oz burka case, in National Review Online, 21 June:
So, if I follow correctly, we can never establish the identity of the woman who falsely accused the police of demanding she remove her burka because to establish her identity the police would have to demand she remove her burka thereby rendering her false accusation true.
Update (II): Not only security concerns, or "mistaken" identity concerns, (or symbols of oppression or symbols of piousness), they're also rude! Hugo Rifkind in the Speccie on 24th July 2010 "All women have the right to wear the burka, but they shouldn't -- it's just rude":
Security concerns aside, of course, women should have the 'right' to wear the burka, anywhere they like. But that doesn’t mean it’s not an inherently repellent garment, the wearing of which, in Britain, is basically just rude. So stop it....
