The Netherlands is banning the Burqa

This week the issue that is wagging people's tongues is the proposal by Geert Wilders of Lijst Geert Wilders to ban the Burqa in public places in The Netherlands. As a ground for this ban Wilders uses the idea that a Burqa is repressing women. In several cities in Flanders the Burqa has alreay been banned for reasons of security. A member for the government coalition CDA supported Wilder's motion. Minister of intergration Verdonk is going to see if a ban can be made workable.

I have mixed feelings about this ban. I do not like the "social reform" ruse that Wilders is using. Basically that is a leftist or liberal idea, that the state should define and reform culture or tradition. I think people have a right to dress as they want. However in Flanders the ban is supported that criminals and terrorists can hide under Burqa, so that it is in the public interest that people can see the faces of people moving in public.

The leader of Milli Gorus, the Turkish Islamic organisation, said that people have a right to remove themselves from the public or the mainstream. I think that people who want to remove themselves in this way, make an Anti-Western statement. If they have Dutch citizenship it should be revoked and so it should for their husband and children. They should be expelled to wherever it is they came from. The Burqa goes against Christian and European tradition. The time for fun and games is over.