[Contributed article]
Having people walking the streets with their faces covered by balaclavas, burkhas, or anything similar makes for a bad society. It engenders an atmosphere of wariness and distrust between people.
If it is legal for people to wear burkhas in the street, then shouldn’t it be legal for people to wear masks and balaclavas in the street too? After all, they all fit in with “freedom of expression”. Or do we want a better society than that? People constantly hiding their faces in public has never been part of the Australian way of life, nor would we want it to be.
Wearing balaclavas on a snowfield can make sense, when it is bitingly cold. Donning a motobike helmet, whilst riding a motorbike, also makes sense, for safety reasons. These face coverings make sense in context, when they are worn in an appropriate area and manner.
It’s all about context. But burkhas do not exist in a limited, one-off, context; they are for wearing anywhere and everywhere in public. There aren’t too many of them being worn in Australia, but those numbers may soar when Muslim immigration soars.
A few years ago, there was a segment on a TV comedy show, the ABC’s “The Chaser’s War on Everything”, where an actor walked into shops wearing a stocking on his head; the result was shop people screaming and running away (which certainly raises the question of whether the “freedom of expression” of wearing balaclavas or stockings to cover faces in the general community is conducive to a good society). Now, you wouldn’t get the same reaction with burkas, because they don’t have an implied threat of robbery. But, of course, robberies have been committed by men wearing burkas. The fact is, you can’t always tell if it is a woman or a man under a burka, and if we end up with thousands wearing them in our country, then it won’t take long for criminals to start using them for their own nefarious purposes too.
There was the case of a Muslim woman driving a car whilst wearing a niqab (which, whilst driving a vehicle, could be quite dangerous in itself), who refused to remove her face covering in order to be identified by a police officer. And then she lied about it, only to be caught out, as it was all recorded on video.
As an aside, it may be worthwhile noting here that whilst burkhas are made with face coverings, with a mesh hiding the eyes, more often the face coverings used by Muslim women are a separate garment called a “niqab”, which covers the face but leaves the eyes visible. Neither garment is conducive to the betterment of society.
If someone wearing a face covering is pulled over by a police officer, then they should remove it for identification purposes. It doesn’t matter if the officer is male or female; it’s not like they are asking to do a body search. This is not Saudi Arabia, and we should not pander to weird and wacky foreign customs. When in Australia, everyone should expect to be asked to abide by our customs (“When in Rome, do as the Romans do”).
Sometimes people raise the issue of “religious freedoms”; that’s all well and good, but only within cultural and legal boundaries. Just because something is part of someone’s religion, it does not mean that the rest of society should abide by it. Some religions permit child brides. Some religions allow marrying multiple wives. Rastafarians believe that smoking marijuana is their religious right. Just because some people have a belief, religious or otherwise, it does not mean that it has to be permitted in Australia. It is logical and reasonable that “religious freedoms” are not a catch-all argument that can be used to circumvent legal standards.
There is no need to specifically ban burkhas; what should be banned is all face coverings worn in public which are intended to disguise people’s identity, with the exceptions of those associated with health and safety or some other proper context (let the lawyers work out the fine print).
Australia does not need, or want, a social atmosphere of people walking around in disguise. We should have an open society, where everyone can openly see other people’s faces, and not be wary of the disguised intent of strangers wearing masks.
However, all that being said, the burkha debate is missing the real point — and that is that the immigration programme pushed by the Liberal and Labor parties is destroying the Australian way of life by the swamping of our nation by Third Worlders. The presence of several hundred people wearing burkhas may slightly change the social face of Australia, but the presence of several million Arabs, Africans, and Asians will change the face of Australia forever.
What if Australia was to end up with five million Muslims? Or more? It’s not exactly an impossible scenario. And what if none of them wore burkhas? Would it all be ok then? No, it wouldn’t.
What if Australia was to end up with another five million Arabs, Africans, or Asians who are Christians? Would that be ok? No, it wouldn’t.
Why wouldn’t these scenarios be ok? Because both of them would just increase the likelihood of the immigration-driven genocide of the Australian people.
If the Australian people no longer exist, and our continent is primarily populated by Asiatics (with several million Arabs and Africans thrown in), then who cares if they wear burkhas or not?
The wearing of burkhas in public should be banned — but don’t be fooled; the whole issue is a red herring. Stopping the genocide of the Australian people — that’s the real issue.
References and further information:
“The Chaser’s War On Everything – The Stocking Experiment (HQ)”, YouTube
“The Chaser’s War On Everything Bank Robber Mask Funny!!”, YouTube
“Social experiment – Non Muslim Men Wear a Burka to Test Security Protocols. Muslim Men Go Crazy ”, YouTube
“Muslim woman uses race card against police and fails miserably!”,
“Burka removal law extended beyond police”, ABC News, 19 August 2011
“Muslim woman Carnita Matthews escapes jail by remaining behind her burqa”, Herald Sun (from The Daily Telegraph), 21 June 2011 (Janet Fife-Yeomans and Paul Kent)
“What are burqas and niqabs, and why are they worn?”, SBS, 30 April 2010 (updated 3 October 2014)
“The Burqa & Niqab – Uncovering the Facts”, Islamic Information & Services Network of Australasia
“Explainer: Why do Muslim women wear a burka, niqab or hijab?”, ABC News, 2 October 2014 (James Vyver)
“List of types of sartorial hijab”, Wikipedia
“Niqab”, Wikipedia
“Burqa”, Wikipedia
“Ban the burka”, YouTube (Pat Condell), 28 June 2009
If only the immigration people would assess an applicant on their ability to assimilate into Australian society as well as assessing their age, qualifications, health, etc. Australia would not be in danger of losing more communities to a take over by Asians and others.
I came to Australia to live with Australians, not Asians, Africans or Muslims and in particular Indians. Indians have created so much damage to communities all over the world by converting those host communities into Indian communities. I know, I came here to get away from them in the UK only to find that the government (especially under Rudd) was inviting them in by the thousands. If I want to live in an Asian community, I would move to Asia, I don’t expect my community to change to a foreign one where we the hosts are made to feel like strangers in our own community.
If only the government would learn from the mistakes of Europe.
There was an incident in Canberra last week that attracted only token media attention( in the News limited papers)-three men attempting to enter parliament house in three different types of face covering-a motorcycle helmet,a pointed Ku Klux Klan hat/covering and one in a niqab.
The niqab wearer had to verify his identity,but was free to leave it on-the other two had to remove their headgear.
It was good to see the man in the KKK outfit make his point (sorry I couldn’t help myself).
It could be argued all three coverings were religious to a degree-the KKK covering a type of Christianity,and the helmet- he may love bikes religiously!
But to the question-why was only one allowed to keep his covering on?
As for the women who wear them,I don’t speak to them or acknowledge them. I f they wish to look like a mailbox,then I’ll treat them like one.
You don’t need me to know what 80% of Ausies think.
You are always spot on.
Eddy..
For Pete’s lets have a referrendum on just what sort of society we want in Australia and lets not leave questions as important as this to polticians. They are just not up to the task at hand.