Blasphemy Rights Day.

The answer is that France has motivations other than public safety. If you're asking me should people be allowed to do their banking in ski masks, than my answer is no.

abuayisha wrote: Caringheart wrote: Greetings abuayisha,Can we agree that when something becomes a threat it must not be allowed?  That laws are made to protect people from threat? The ban has little or nothing to do with public safety, but any conspicuous religious symbol is seen as a threat to secularism in France.

It is seen as an inposition of repression upon the women who are pressurised into wearing it by their families.

Not revealing your face is a very anti-social thing to do. If you do this due to not wanting to yourself then it must be asked why the hell not? What are you hiding???

If it is due to family pressure then that is not OK in a modern society. Women need to be as empowered as men in the west not restricted by not being able to make any sort of relationship due to not being able to show their face.

abuayisha wrote: Caringheart wrote: I get your point, but there is no punishment for wearing, or not wearing the hijab, in the west.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ban_on_face_covering Hamza Yusuf criticized the French government for the ban, writing: While I am personally opposed to the face veil, it is a legitimate, if minority opinion, in the Islamic legal tradition for a woman to wear one. Most women who wear it believe they are following God�s injunction and not their husband�s. French laicism seems as fundamentalist as the very religious fanatics it wants to keep out. On a trip to France a few years ago, I was shocked to see pornography openly displayed on the streets in large advertisements. How odd that to unveil a woman for all to gape at is civilized, but for her to cover up to ward off gazes is a crime... While the French Prime Minister sees no problem with exposing in public places a woman�s glorious nakedness, he is oddly and quite rabidly disturbed by allowing others to cover it up. The sooner secular nations learn to allow people of faith to live their lives in peace, the sooner peace will flourish.

Greetings abuayisha,

Can we agree that when something becomes a threat it must not be allowed?  That laws are made to protect people from threat?

This is a very recent thing.  No imposition has been made up to this point... (unlike the impositions that have always been placed on others living in islamic nations... I wonder if those nations would welcome outsiders that hid their faces?).

When faces are hidden and people can not be identified, this becomes a problem in a society that is living under attack.  Attackers must be able to be identified.  People must not be able to hide themselves from identification. 
Can you understand how this is seen as a threat and why laws are being made to prevent it? 
People must not be allowed to use religion to hide evil deeds, and evil people.  I would expect innocent people to want to reveal themselves so that evil ones would be exposed.

asalaam and blessings,
Caringheart

final thought:  I wonder what would happen if the nations requiring burqa's began to realize that those very burqa's could be used as a means to hide and attack from within?  What would happen if those nations came under attack from outsiders, using the burqa to hide their identities?


Edited by Caringheart - 21 December 2015 at 11:54am

abuayisha wrote: Sounds a lot like what we here in the West call assimilation. It's the same conformist attitude that forces Muslim women who don the veil to remove it under penalty of law, as well as, to fit in.

Greetings abuayisha,

I get your point, but there is no punishment for wearing, or not wearing the hijab, in the west.  Most people used to not have any problem with that, treating it as just another form of dressing.  That is the freedom we wish to retain. 
I think we all would like to retain the casual attitude towards muslims, that once prevailed.
 When it begins to look as if people do not come to our societies because they appreciate what they offer...
when it begins to look as if they come to the society and then want to change it... then problems arise.

asalaam and blessings,
Caringheart