Thursday, October 13, 2005

The Burka: To Be or Not to Be? That Is the Question!

In the Netherlands, ostensibly not! Rita Verdonk, the country's hardline Integration Minister is getting tougher still! The Netherlands, home to one million Muslims out of a total population of only about seventeen and a half million, has a particular problem with their Muslim communities. As everywhere else, they are not integrating, but different from other places, the Netherlands has been a particularly liberal country - till recently that is! The Muslim population there have tested and tried the patience of the tolerant Dutch for long enough. Now, the Dutch are drawing a line in the sand saying: thus far and no further!

It is ironic that it has taken one of the smallest countries in Europe to have the courage to state that the burka is to be banned. But then, the Dutch have had some pretty nasty experiences of late due to fundamentalist Islam. It was only a matter of several months ago that Theo van Gogh was slaughtered on the streets of Amsterdam for making a film - Submission - highlighting the unequal treatment of women in Islam. This was a turning point for the usually tolerant Dutch.

Now, it seems that the burka is to be no more in the Netherlands. And quite rightly so, too! The British need to take a leaf out of the Dutch's book and do the same. No, better still: The European Union needs to pass a law banning the burka Europe-wide.

There is no reason for a Muslim woman to wear the burka, since it has nothing to do with Islam. Prophet Muhammad, if Muslims wish to follow their religion, stated that a Muslim woman, a Muslimah, should dress modestly. Whose particular version of modesty is the burka?

I'll tell you whose version it is: It's the version of the desert Arab, the Bedouin; the desert, of course, is the home of Islam. So the wearing of the burka shows exactly how Arabo-centric the Islamic faith is.

For decades, educated Muslim women didn't wear the burka, especially in cities such as Cairo. This all changed after the Iranian revolution started by the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979. He breathed new life into the Islamic fundamentalist movement worldwide, and it is since that time that more and more Muslim women have taken to wearing such garments.

This is proof, if proof were needed, that donning a burka is much more than a religious statement; rather, it is a political statement. And a subversive one at that! Why? Because no other religion in the world is so political as Islam is, and no other religion today competes with Western liberalism for pre-eminence in the world. Indeed, Islam is a competing civilization to ours, and in every respect; and, since the oil embargo of the 70's, new life has been breathed into the Islamic world from the enormous wealth generated for them by petro-dollars.

If Muslims had their way - and that includes many moderate ones, too - they would like to see the hegemony of the West superseded by a new Islamic hegemony!

This is one of the main reasons why we should not tolerate Muslimahs wearing the burka in our free societies. Another is that the burka is a symbol of the total subjugation of women - it says: be seen as an apparition; don't be heard, you wench!; you are inferior to men (which, of course, is clearly stated in the Qur'an) - and women in the West have fought long and hard for their equal position in today's world.
Mrs Verdonk gave warning that the “time of cosy tea-drinking” with Muslim groups had passed and that natives and immigrants should have the courage to be critical of each other. She recently cancelled a meeting with Muslim leaders who refused to shake her hand because she was a woman.
That Muslim men would not shake her hand was, of course, an outrage! Though one cannot be surprised. Muslims do this all the time: they often refuse to shake the hand of an inferior infidel, too. God knows I've had plenty of experience of that!

The Dutch deserve praise for the courageous way they are handling this delicate problem. I wonder who among the British list of politicians would have the courage to do the same?

Similar legislation should be introduced right across Europe! As Mrs. Thatcher once said: This is no time to go all wobbly!

©Mark Alexander

All Rights Reserved

2 comments:

Eleanor © said...

The burqa hides all...the woman's beauty AND the evidence of the man's cruelty and brutality.

Look at the changes in the situation of women wherever Islam has gone. The conditions today are exactly the same as they were in the 7th century.

What conditions would induce a contemporary woman to submit to this pysical and psychological brutality? The fear of physical violence or the fear of emotional rejection by a Muslim lover. Many Western women have later regretted their involvement and marriage to Muslim men, for they have found such an entanglement to be slavery.

. said...

glad to see the film is still around, also its had 70 thousand veiws, we need to keep this film out to the public most links to it only last a few days then are mysteriously gone...

i agree with all you said to Eleanor.. what hit me even harder than the hatred of females is the hatred of opinion,that lead to Theo's slaughter. this film was also banned in Euro art festivals cuz if offened muslims..... it should be played in all schools, along with nazi persiction of Jews and American slavery, as an example of total intolerance and hatred.

Mark thanks for providing a link