tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2197051945822486684.post6701082986297411877..comments2024-03-29T05:05:01.273+11:00Comments on Thinking Out Aloud: Banning the burqaLorenzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00305933404442191098noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2197051945822486684.post-44705508873487309512010-06-23T20:47:35.287+10:002010-06-23T20:47:35.287+10:00I understand the distaste, even revulsion, burqa&#...I understand the distaste, even revulsion, burqa's create, the more I think about it, the more banning it seems a highly inappropriate response: particularly, as you say, in Australia.<br /><br />This issue would not even get off the ground in the US, as no-one thinks it would pass constitutional muster.<br /><br />But distaste, revulsion, foreignness and anxiety can get you a long way.<br /><br />Consider the silly bans on crossbows and snuff, for example.Lorenzohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00305933404442191098noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2197051945822486684.post-62614622786311406672010-06-23T15:38:22.408+10:002010-06-23T15:38:22.408+10:00Hope you don't mind me double-posting from SL....Hope you don't mind me double-posting from SL. But I cannot believe this issue is actually being pushed by an Australian legislature. Fred Nile has successfully introduced a burqa-ban bill into the NSW Upper House<br /><br /><br />I have a lot of sympathy for the peculiarities of foreign polities, and thus respect that sometimes legal bans and censorships are necessary. For example, I empathize with the decision to outlaw Holocaust denial in say Austria, but would never accept it in Australia. Similarly, with the burqa issue in Belgium, France, and Turkey. I also respect bans in places like Thailand and Singapore on 'revealing' attire, and so forth. But clearly, think these would be inappropriate in the Australian context.<br /><br /><br />But Australia has nothing like either the political history of France, Belgium, or Austria, or the current immigrant integration problems which beset continental Europe and the UK. We do not NEED or even ASK for - let alone DEMAND - the banning of anything; including the burqa.<br /><br /><br />Australia has a lot more honey to attract the boganization (aka 'integration/assimilation' ;) ) of its Muhammadan migrants, compared to the vinegar of council-estate life among the lower-orders in France, the UK, Netherlands, Denmark, and so on.<br /><br /><br />Why are both Labor and the Libs supporting a private members bill by serial christian cook Fred Nile?<br /><br />And to our legal eagles and skeptics, why is the NSW upper house able to initiate legislation in the first place?<br /><br />The only parties to oppose it were The Greens and FF. WTF?<br /><br />http://www.theage.com.au/national/burqa-ban-bill-introduced-in-nsw-20100623-yw1n.htmlPeter Pattonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2197051945822486684.post-69741010691354429032010-06-08T09:12:52.347+10:002010-06-08T09:12:52.347+10:00As you may have gathered from my post, I am not co...As you may have gathered from my post, I am not convinced either way. Charles, you advance a good argument against.Lorenzohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00305933404442191098noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2197051945822486684.post-71427537231484429122010-06-08T00:30:30.663+10:002010-06-08T00:30:30.663+10:00I have also struggled with this issue. However, s...I have also struggled with this issue. However, so far I am not ready to blame or ban the burqa.<br />The assumption of loss of freedom, identity or effective communication pre-supposes that revealing one's physical presence in public enhances that freedom, identity or communication. I'm not sure that is necessarily self-evident. Our "free" society creates dress codes and body images that give both men and women an identity full of sexual and other stereotypes that surely do limit our effective communication, limit our freedom and pre-determine our identity for many we meet. I'm not sure that is better. It seems to me we have our own equally public ways of embracing sexual inequality.<br />By all means let's ban sexual violence, FGM or racial vilification. But somehow it offends my libertarian nature (including freedom to wear clothes that others do not understand) to ban clothing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2197051945822486684.post-63438395881034409482010-06-08T00:14:50.325+10:002010-06-08T00:14:50.325+10:00Hi Michael -
I think that's all fine as far as...Hi Michael -<br />I think that's all fine as far as it goes; given its actual role in actually existing society, I don't have any argument in principle against banning the burqa. (In a free & equal society one could defend it as an act of choice, but it present it's clearly not that.) The question is whether banning it would have good or bad effects in practice, and it seems to me overwhelmingly likely that it would have bad effects: firstly because many Muslims would see it as an attack on their religion (which wouldn't in fact be your motive, but realistically probably would be the motive for a lot of supporters of a ban), and secondly because women who are now forced to wear the burqa would, if unable to do so in public, quite probably be forced to stay home, and that doesn't seem like any sort of gain at all.Charles Richardsonnoreply@blogger.com